Readers React: L.A. City Council’s wise gun-safety action

To the editor: Thanks to the Los Angeles City Council (particularly Councilman Paul Krekorian), Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Atty. Mike Feuer for supporting efforts toward making our children and teens safer. Their support for new requirements for stricter gun storage will save lives. (“L.A. City Council backs new rules for gun storage in the home,” Aug. 4)

When adults leave loaded firearms easily accessible to children, the result is gun deaths and injuries. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2007 and 2011, an average of 62 children ages 14 years and under died each year in unintentional shootings. Those deaths were preventable.

Additionally, suicide is one of the three leading causes of death for teens 13 to 19 years old, and the risk of suicide is four to 10 times higher in homes with guns. If the guns are stored loaded and unlocked, the rate of suicide is even higher.

We can protect our children and teens with the safe storage of firearms, and we must. I am proud that our leaders recognize this need and are putting our city at the forefront of this lifesaving effort.

Roberta Schiller, Los Angeles

The writer is a board member of Women Against Gun Violence.

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To the editor: This city can’t adequately address the potholes in our streets, broken sidewalks, exploding water mains throughout the city, traffic issues, vagrants sleeping on our streets or gang violence, but once again its leaders waste the taxpayers’ money with these symbolic votes that will do nothing to improve our lives.

Council members get paid about $180,000 to make these symbolic decisions. Who are the fools, them or us?

Vickie Casas, Los Angeles

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To the editor: L.A.’s sensible handgun storage measure, requiring that guns in homes be disabled or locked up unless within the immediate proximity and control of the owner, should satisfy the desire of a handgun owner to protect himself or herself. The gun’s there if someone feels threatened by the bad guys or a potential rogue government.

For collectors, the gun’s still there to admire and will be less likely to be stolen or involved in a fatal domestic incident.

If that isn’t enough to satisfy gun owners, I believe they want those guns for more nefarious purposes.

Jane Diamond, Sherman Oaks

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