LETTERS IN VIEW : Gun Control Arguments Aim at Targets

Patrick Mott’s excellent piece on firearms accidents raises the question of who is to blame for the steadily increasing death toll from unintended shootings. He covered most of the obvious causes--parental carelessness, shooter inexperience, and disregard for safety.

But he missed an important possibility, and it was right in front of him on the Calendar pages: the heavy emphasis on gunplay in today’s movies.

Take this issue (June 15):

On Page 2, Mel Gibson embraces Goldie Hawn and a Baretta 9-millimeter automatic under critics’ rave reviews for the “hot action and wild humor” in “Bird on a Wire.”

On Page 3, Nick Nolte takes a two-handed grip on some kind of revolver aimed over the reader’s right shoulder, while Eddie Murphy grins at the victim’s plight in “Another 48 Hours.”

Page 8 shows this summer’s hero, Dick Tracy, blazing away with an antique .45-caliber Thompson submachine gun. Pure spoof, but with a deadly message. Credit Americans with putting gun and play together into one word.

Then turn to Page 11 and find Tim Robbins with his finger on the trigger of an AK-47 poised over Robin Williams’ ear, while a string of reviewers’ endorsements for “Cadillac Man” reveal that this flick is actually a comedy.

Guns are no laughing matter, as Mott’s story makes plain.

When the movie industry exploits violence with firearms as mere comic relief it gains a share of responsibility for needless gun deaths. As does The Times for spreading their foolish message.

DONALD W. MOORE

Ridgecrest