Letter: Thoughts on automatic weapons and Smith’s Hill

Posted 2/28/16

To the editor:

I have two subjects to write about. The first is Smith's Hill where I and other neighborhood kids sledded all winter during the 1930's.  We pulled our sleds down Hix Bridge Road, onto Cadman's Neck Road and then went …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Letter: Thoughts on automatic weapons and Smith’s Hill

Posted

To the editor:

I have two subjects to write about. The first is Smith's Hill where I and other neighborhood kids sledded all winter during the 1930's.  We pulled our sleds down Hix Bridge Road, onto Cadman's Neck Road and then went screaming down that snow covered hill.  There was no other hill in the area as good as Smith's for sleds.

The Smith family owned that steep field for about 100 years.  The Smith brothers, Bill, John and Stuart were hard working successful farmers.  They were also well known in town government.  John was a selectman and moderator for years.  Those Smiths really enjoyed watching many young people and some adults sledding.

Since the early 1900's that area was known as Smith's Hill but now someone has described it as potato hill.  I consider that to be an insult to the name Smith.  No potatoes were ever grown on that steep slope.  Any vegetable planted there would be washed to the valley bottom during a rain storm.  I hope the person who came up with that name would contact me so I could hear the reason for that name.

The second subject is the Constitution's Second Amendment.  When that was written the only arms available were muzzle loading pistols, muzzle loading rifles and muzzle loading cannon.  Automatic guns were unknown.  Guns then were used for hunting or protecting human life.  Those guns probably took one half minute to load.

I am not against any responsible person owning a gun. When I was  age 13, my father bought me a Mossberg 22 rifle which I used on a range he built.  But do we need automatic firing guns for hunting, target practice, life protection or for shooting clay pigeons?

Police need pistols that fire every time the trigger is pulled but why not require civilian rifle bolts to be pulled before each firing of a rifle. I can not believe that the Second Amendment says it is okay to own an AK7.  (I hope that is the proper designation  of the well known rifle).

Carlton "Cukie" Macomber

Westport

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.