‘Automatic Deadlines’

In response to your editorial “Automatic Deadlines,” May 8:

I only wish that The Times would make an attempt to get its opinions based on so-called facts straight. Converting a semiautomatic firearm to fully automatic weapon is not at all easy unless you are a skilled machinist and in possession of or have access to thousands of dollars worth of metal-working machinery.

The statement that these weapons are not designed for sports and there is no reason for anyone in California to own them couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, tens of thousands of target shooters across the U.S. compete all summer in matches culminating in a national match each fall in Ohio.

If these firearms were meant only for killing, then they would be made to sell for much cheaper than their usual $500 to $1,200 price tag.

The machine guns that gangs are using are bought on the black market, the same as their drugs.

Assemblyman Mike Roos’s (D-Los Angeles) bill (to prohibit the manufacture, sale or possession of nine specific types of semiautomatic weapons) is just that--another ruse on gun owners’ rights.

GARY A. LOWE

Tarzana