Dear Editor:
In France, to own something a diabolical as a Ruger 10/22 .22 caliber rifle, with its 10-round detachable magazine, you must have a sport shooting license. To get one you must be an active member of a shooting club (shoot at the club at least three times a year), annually get a certificate from a doctor stating that you are mentally and physically capable of owning a firearm and then be prepared to jump over major hurdles set up by French bureaucracy. The permit is good for three years. At any time your permit can be revoked at the whim of the local police, and your gun confiscated.
The above restrictions did not stop terrorists from murdering 12 people during the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. They did not stop the murder of 130 people at the Paris Bataclan theater attack in November 2015.
One of the Tsarnaev brothers had been on the FBI's radar for years prior to the Boston Marathon bombing. Omar Mateen was investigated by the FBI several times before he murdered people in Orlando. He was taken off the terrorist watch list! He worked for a security company that provided security for U.S. government facilities.
News flash for Obama, "It ain't Quakers who are committing all these acts of terror." The direction of the focus to stop future terror attacks is quite obvious to all with even a shred of common sense.
The so-called Patriot Act and its secret FISA courts (sounds like some third world dictatorship) already strip away more of our freedoms than I am willing to give up for "protection" against acts of terror. More laws restricting our right to protect ourselves and our families might even encourage terror attacks.
Terrorists seem to love "soft" targets. I agree with Jesse Hughes, an Eagles of Death member who survived the Bataclan attack, "Did your French gun control stop a single person from dying at the Bataclan? And if anyone can answer yes, I'd like to hear it, because I don't think so. I think the only thing that stopped it was some of the bravest men that I've ever seen in my life charging head-first into the face of death with their firearms.