Illicit Handgun Sales
* Re the $22 billion anti-crime bill (Nov. 5):
Although I am an avid gun control supporter, I tend to agree with Rep. Jack Brooks’ (D-Tex.) comments on the relative ineffectiveness of the Brady gun control bill. “The main market for the purchase and sale of handguns is the illicit market,” Brooks said. “We may be simply deluding ourselves and the country if we attempt to paint this bill as the answer to violent crime or even the proliferation of handguns.”
Although I feel the Brady bill is a good first step to gun control, I have an even better solution, one that I feel would be acceptable to both the NRA and the gun control supporters: See to it that those people involved in the illicit sale of guns are charged as accessories to any crime committed with those guns. I think this would act as a very effective deterrent to anyone thinking of selling guns illegally.
ALFRED A. BARRIOS
Culver City
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