To the editor:

The Sakonnet Peace Alliance, which has held an anti-war vigil in Little Compton every Sunday for nearly 13 years, this week joined the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence in seeking intelligent regulations for gun use in Rhode Island, as provided for in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

As a decorated former Marine combat officer, I offer both groups my heartfelt support in this endeavor. I know from experience the horrible devastation that military assault weapons can cause to a human body – not only from intense firepower, but from the fact that their high velocity rounds don’t simply pass through a human torso, whether child or adult, but leave a path of internal devastation up to 3 inches wide, where tissue is literally gone.

I know also from experience the danger of handguns. At least three highly experienced Marines in my command managed to shoot themselves with .45 cal. pistols in Vietnam. These and other handguns are the most dangerous personal weapons I have ever come across – to the owner that is, or to their family – not to an enemy, because they are highly inaccurate.

I can only hope that other veterans or gun owners such as myself can see their way to joining the thousands of Rhode Island residents supporting the coalition against gun violence, bringing sanity to what was originally intended in our Second Amendment to be a “well-regulated” armed (if need be) citizenry.

Peter V. Fossel

Little Compton