Readers React: Without ammunition, an AR-15 is just a menacing paperweight

To the editor: “Go-o-d Morning Vietnam!””was what I half expected to hear at Saturday’s March for Our Lives rally. (‘’Welcome to the revolution’: In tears, silence and anger, thousands march worldwide to demand action on guns,” March 24) After all, both then and now it’s the youth of America responding to no-action adults as a deaf and blind Congress allows the targeting of their own youth by the greedy profiteering of death weapons’ manufacturers.

Whether it’s a war in Southeast Asia or in their own schools and cities, America’s teenagers are the ones actually dying and are rising up and saying, “No more.” At least today, adults applaud and support them.

Janet Kinosian, Santa Ana

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To the editor: As a product of the ’60s I know how hard it is to transition from the emotionalism of a march to real social change. So I challenge all the people who marched this weekend and this past year, whether young or old, black, white or brown, to remember their reasons for marching and register to vote and vote in each and every election of their remaining lives. Make a real difference.

Julie Smith, Camarillo

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To the editor: Anti-gun protesters were being protected by security personnel and officers with all types of firearms, from AR-15 rifles to handguns, to keep the marchers safe. They literally brought out the big guns to protect people … protesting guns.

Demonstrators exercised their 1st Amendment rights to destroy their 2nd Amendment rights, the very amendment that protects them and makes possible the former.

Judy Watson, Lancaster

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To the editor: Although I became part of what was known in the 1950s as the Silent Generation, I did pursue a fairly active civic life as an adult. As I watch the breathtaking performance of today’s high school students rising up to confront a bipartisan political establishment that has completely failed to provide them with the kind of rational gun laws that they, and adults like me, deserve, I must acknowledge a great feeling of shame as I look back on the failures of my generation.

It is time for the members of my generation to follow the leadership of these amazing teenagers by supporting them in every possible way, especially in the voting booth. The failures of my generation will only be compounded if we have to wait for these wonderful teenagers to become registered voters.

Charles M. Weisenberg, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: If there really is a revolution brewing out there, kindly sign me up for the counterrevolution.

I certainly have no issue with folks exercising their 1st Amendment rights as long as it does not conflict with our 2nd Amendment rights. Further, the tactic of targeting, isolating, and demonizing the National Rifle Assn. is straight out of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals.”

Geoffrey C. Church, Los Angeles

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My father was shot and killed at his desk one Monday morning in a mass murder. The gun debate is personal in our family.

People against outlawing assault rifles claim that they are fundamentally the same as traditional hunting rifles, except for the aesthetics of looking military. Big lie. That pistol grip at the trigger of an assault rifle is an essential difference. It was introduced not to aid in deer hunting but to make shooting as many human beings as possible as fast as possible, firing rapidly from the hip in an assault — not aiming carefully from the shoulder at a single deer.

Don’t be fooled by the smoke-screen argument from the NRA or others. Ask any G.I. or vet which weapon is better for killing as many human beings as possible in the shortest time, a traditional hunting rifle or an assault rifle.

Jerry Small, Venice

To the editor: Robert Muggah has laid out one simple route to controlling gun violence by focusing on the real culprit: the ammunition. (“Want to stop gun violence now? Regulate bullets,” March 26) Restrict access to ammunition and you have put an obstacle in the shooter’s path. The article cites Wired magazine having reported in 2013 “that roughly 10 billion rounds are produced in the United States every year, or about 32 rounds for every American citizen.”

We tax sugary drinks to keep our population healthy; we tax alcohol and nicotine products for the same reason. If there were a tax of one cent per bullet imposed, it would be keeping in line with other efforts to protect lives. A penny to save a life? Sounds reasonable to me.

Pamela Bobit, Anaheim Hills

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To the editor: Bravo Robert Muggah. Finally a common-sense approach to gun violence.

To paraphrase the NRA, “Guns don’t kill people — bullets kill people.” Without ammunition, an AR-15, an AK-47 or an Uzi is just a menacing paperweight.

Eric Foxman, West Hills, Calif.

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