Brady Bill Approved by Senate

* Thank God for the Brady bill with a five-day waiting period (Nov. 25). California has a 15-day-waiting period, and Los Angeles now has its murders down to under 26 . . . a week!

GARY R. PHILIPS

Huntington Beach

* In my 39 years on this planet I have lived through the murders of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and countless other Americans. I felt the loss of John Lennon 13 years ago by a handgun. I watched on TV as George Wallace and Ronald Reagan were wounded by wanna-be assassins.

And still our brilliant politicians seem unable to cope with the reality of 30 years of tighter gun control regulations.

Simply put, if gun control is the answer then why has violent crime increased instead of decreased?

As a society we need to put those who commit the crimes with firearms in prison. Remember “use a gun go to jail.” And if a criminal kills someone he should be executed swiftly.

We have the answer on how to curb violent crime. The question is do we have the guts to do it.

MIKE MILLIMAN

Tustin

* A man on television who had much the same opinion about gun control that I have was referred to as self-righteous by the person reporting the story, but I will not be made to feel anything less than proud of having donated to Sarah Brady’s organization and having been vociferous in my beliefs.

One cannot escape the irony of the passage of the Brady bill so close to the commemoration of the assassination of President Kennedy so long ago.

True, this is only a small first step toward dealing seriously with violence in this country.

How can a person care more about a piece of property than the killing and maiming of so many innocent people, even children? It would be different if guns were effective weapons of self-defense, but the proof is there. For every one person killed with a gun in self-defense, 42 die for no good reason because of a gun having been bought for self-protection. Without exception, everyone I have ever known who has owned a gun has been credulous about this subject. Gun owners use a gun the way a baby uses a security blanket.

When I was growing up in Alabama, my very manhood was associated with how I was expected to think about guns. Now, for a change, intelligence has won.

RONALD WEBSTER

Long Beach

* “If just one life is saved the Brady bill will be worth it,” stated Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio). If that is the litmus test for good legislation, then why hasn’t Congress outlawed tobacco? Cigarettes are guaranteed to kill the consumer, whereas the gun will hurt no one unless it is misused. Yet each year Congress spends billions of dollars to assist tobacco growers. With such hypocrisy, is it no wonder that the public has contempt for our politicians?

JOHN PEARSON

Studio City