Detective’s Death and Gun Control

In response to “Veteran L.A. Detective Dies in Restaurant Shoot-Out,” Part A, Oct. 11:

Russell Kuster was a casualty of war. Anyone who crossed his path, as I did on a newspaper story back in 1979, quickly recognized that he was devoted to his job and, more than many, he loved being alive. Flying the city’s flags at half-staff for 30 days is an appropriate reminder of his passing, but a more fitting memorial would be a genuinely tough handgun control law, a swifter, surer criminal justice system (six weeks from arrest to jail in England!) and a national computer to keep track of career criminals such as Kuster’s assailant. Kuster will be remembered as long as there are police and people who care about them.

RODERICK THORP, Duarte