Gun Control

Regarding the letter on problem policemen, Oct. 12:

The letter writer points out that violence on our streets may be “the root cause of police violence,” but then her analytic talents gave way to the same old knee-jerk response--gun control! The simplest research reveals that there are now over 20,000 gun control laws that were supposed to prevent violent criminals, psychopaths and children from obtaining guns. It might occur to one that they are not working. It would seem obvious that people who habitually break the law to murder other people probably won’t take a new gun control law any more seriously than they do the ones existing now. That leaves the average innocent citizens, the potential victims, as the only ones who might obey the new law. If they do, they may be giving up the natural right to defend themselves.

Firearms, in their various forms, have been a part of our society since the beginning. It is the structure, values and logical reasoning of our society and of its leaders that have changed. Factors that have to do with family, education, our legal system, ethnicity, economics, technology, population growth, ecology, and pollution, etc., all have a bearing on the condition of society today. These are the factors that have changed, and where we will find both the causes and the answers to the violence in society today.

TED LOUGHLIN

Santa Ana