PLATFORM : Tax Gun Polluters

The shooting of three doctors at County-USC earlier this month underlines an ugly truth. Guns are part of our way of life. While we continue to agitate for gun control, something can be done right now.

Guns are polluting our lives, and there is a precedent for making purveyors of pollutants pay to control them. Coal burners pay for stack scrubbers; filling stations pay for nozzles that limit the release of toxic fumes from gasoline.

Why not impose a surtax on guns, earmarked for buying and installing metal detectors in hospitals, schools and courtrooms?

It is terrible that we have been reduced to this. But if we can’t rid society of firearms, and it looks as though we can’t, we can at least make those who profit from them pay to safeguard the rest of us.

Passing through metal detectors will not make society more civil--that is a luxury. But it will make life safer for those held captive by the gun lobby.

On the bright side, metal detector sales will mushroom. As guns proliferate, we may need detectors wherever people gather.