To the editor:

I looked with sadness and disbelief at my Christmas ads this week. A door-buster sale — complete with a picture of a semi-automatic tactical rifle. With 10- or 30-round magazines, it’s the lowest price of the season, just in time for my holiday shopping.

I grew up with guns. My dad hunted to put food on his family’s table. Guns were a part of life, providing food and protection for livestock and for the home. My brothers hunted and I learned to shoot at targets. My sons grew up hunting. I own a shotgun.

The guns I grew up with — the gun I currently own — make sense to me. A semi-automatic rifle does not. It has one purpose, not just to kill other humans but kill lots of them quickly. They are a weapon of war. And now, at Christmas time, in celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus, we have the opportunity to find a semi-automatic rifle under the Christmas tree, perhaps just beside the Nativity set.

It makes me very sad. I hope the store that ran this ad has a change of heart next Christmas. I don’t believe that assault rifles have a place in our communities at any time of the year, most especially at this holy season of peace.

Sheila Fox

Delaware