There's nothing logical or sensible about allowing members of the general public to own military-style firearms and high-capacity magazines. These weapons aren't for hunting animals. They're designed to kill human beings, which they do very well, be it in Fallujah, Iraq, or Orlando.

States should be able to ban civilian use of these weapons. The Supreme Court apparently agrees. On Monday justices let stand a lower court's ruling upholding Connecticut's right to ban sales of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, which went into effect after the 2012 slaughter of 20 young children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Six other states also restrict similar sales.

Until 2004 federal law also banned such sales, but Congress bowed to overwhelming pressure from the gun-manufacturing lobby and restored availability of these killing machines to the general public.

Gun manufacturers do everything in their power to convince the public that our Second Amendment rights are under attack whenever lawmakers or law enforcers question the sanity of keeping military-style weapons in general circulation. Mass shootings drive up gun sales because the manufacturers' public-relations arm, the National Rifle Association, goes into hyperdrive warning, "They're coming to take your guns!"

The Second Amendment isn't under assault. The American people are.

Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, reacted to the Sandy Hook tragedy by calling for an end to civilian sales of assault rifles.

"That's what our soldiers ought to carry. I personally don't think there's any need for that kind of weaponry on the streets and particularly around the schools in America," McChrystal said. He reiterated the point last week in response to Orlando, noting that 33,599 Americans died from gunshot wounds in 2014, and that from 2001 to 2010 119,246 people were murdered with guns.

The death toll was "18 times all American combat deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is a national crisis," McChrystal wrote in a New York Times commentary.

The NRA and gun manufacturers don't want you to hear that message. That's why they resort to outlandish scare tactics to make Americans believe the public sale of assault rifles is more important than the lives of school children, theatergoers or nightclub patrons.

The NRA holds such sway on Capitol Hill that Congress not only rescinded the federal assault weapons ban but it has threatened to block funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention if it conducts any studies looking into the effects of gun violence. The NRA doesn't want you to know the facts.

Americans must take their country back. Reject NRA scare-tactic campaigns. Support common-sense measures to halt gun sales that dramatically increase casualty tolls in mass shootings. Civilians don't need assault weaponry and high-capacity magazines.

The Missouri and Illinois congressional delegations need to hear that message loud and clear.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Photo credit: Patrick Feller