San Francisco Shooting
* I trust the irony of your July 2 front page didn’t go unnoticed. Column One: The government has “pressured” the TV and toy industries into making it a little tougher for a kid to get his hands on a rubber gun. Another article, “Roving Gunman Kills 8, Self in S.F. High-Rise”: The government has failed to do anything to prevent people from arming themselves to the teeth and running amok. The success of the one effort is a sop at best. The failure of the other leaves children without parents. To the extent that the government is us, where the hell are our priorities? Is this really what the framers had in mind when they drafted the Constitution?
JAMES C. HOUGHTON
Los Angeles
* The impact of a senseless killing by a deranged person, who is allowed by law to buy instruments of destruction with such impunity, supersedes the transcendence of the 2nd Amendment.
ENRIQUE J. FRIEDMAN
Fullerton
* Your editorial “Guns Kill All Sorts of People” (July 7) is unfortunately an example of faulty logic and omission of the facts. You call Gian Luigi Ferri a suicide “victim.” Please inform me of the sort of reasoning that calls someone who shoots himself intentionally a victim. You then say that we have weak gun control laws, when in truth we have a multitude of gun control laws on top of laws with severe penalties for the use of firearm during the commission of a crime.
You and others are neglecting to face up to the truth that there are no laws capable of preventing such acts by deranged persons. While I share the sorrow caused by needless death, enacting more futile laws out of emotional distress will have absolutely no practical effect. Other than wasting scarce tax resources, that is, as our legislators invoke the bogyman of “gun control,” thereby consuming time and effort better spent on the very real problems that they try so hard to avoid.
KIM WHITMYRE
Long Beach
* The Southern California chapter of the American College of Surgeons strongly supports your editorial on gun control. Our board of directors voted on April 13 to fully support passage of the Brady bill, which is only a starting point for effective gun control. We believe this to be a social rather than political issue, and one which clearly endangers the health and safety of our community. The American College of Surgeons represents over 51,000 board-certified surgeons, of which 2,000 are members of the Southern California chapter.
M. MICHAEL SHABOT MD
President, Southern Calif. Chapter
American College of Surgeons, L.A.
* Despite California’s triple-strength gun control version of the five-day waiting period of the Brady bill, Ferri legally purchased his firearms and then carried out his criminal acts. Is this what gun control laws are supposed to do--nothing?
Your editorial (“Shooting Fields Are Everywhere,” July 3) stated, “ . . . knives do not kill eight people at a clip; semiautomatic weapons do.” All people would have been better served if The Times had also included drunk drivers in light of “Accident Kills 7 Passengers in Bed of Pickup” (July 3).
Instead of taking the easy way out via more gun control laws, let’s concentrate on dealing with the people who commit crimes and not on trying to control the instruments of crime or discriminate against those of us who use firearms legally.
TERRY KOSAKA
Los Angeles