Horror fiction master and mega-selling author Stephen King waded into the raging national debate on gun control over the weekend, publishing a personal essay supportive of the individual right to bear arms but pushing for new laws to curb mass shootings like the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December.
King is himself a gun owner -- he has several handguns and rifles at his suburban Maine home -- but says he supports a ban on military-style semiautomatics and high-capacity ammunition clips and a major expansion of background checks for gun buyers.
King also has harsh words for pro-gun lobbyists like Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, who has vowed to fight any new gun control regulations tooth and nail. He writes:
"One only wishes Wayne LaPierre and his NRA board of directors could be drafted to some of these scenes, where they would be required to put on booties and rubber gloves and help clean up the blood, the brains, and the chunks of intestine still containing the poor wads of half-digested food that were some innocent bystander's last meal."
The essay is for sale, priced at 99 cents, as a "Kindle Single" on the Amazon website.