Eliminating Guns Won’t Ensure Safety

* Two weeks after my July transfer from St. Callistus Church in Garden Grove, I read of the shooting death of Omar Acosta, a 15-year-old who had been my organist. I was saddened but not surprised. For months I had not felt safe in the area, hearing gunfire, seeing so much graffiti, and watching tough-looking, small groups of young men cruise around the church and its environs. A short time later, big headlines announced a three-county law enforcement sweep that had arrested 200 gang members, some of whom were associated with the shooting death of my organist. It seemed very impressive.

Against this backdrop, I am amazed that so many politicians’ solution to the criminal violence is to ban all firearms. It further amazes me to see the concerted effort to blame “assault weapons” and “semi-automatic” guns for our present misery, as if the presence of these things were somehow a new development. “Eliminate guns, then we will be safe.” This skewed thinking delays our addressing the real issues.

Recently, we have seen that gang members are quite capable of killing people with metal rods. In Santa Ana, some gangs rely upon baseball bats, and have we forgotten about knives? Will we close early all piers and parks because of the violence there? Is punishing the ordinary people the just way to handle our problems?

Guns are harder to buy legally than they were in 1968. The guns have not changed, people have changed. Recently, our President said that if American hearts do not change for the better, all the gun laws in the world will not bring us peace in our streets.

We must begin to deal with the real issues.

FATHER JOHN-PAUL HOPPING

Orange

Hopping is associate pastor at St. Norbert’s Church in Orange.

* Your editorial (“Ducky Idea,” Feb. 10) concerning Disney’s “guns for tickets” promotion could have included the fact that Disney is attempting to have the citizens of Anaheim pay for about half of the proposed team-practice ice rink (cost of the land). Also, the editorial could have mentioned that it is costing Anaheim millions of dollars each year to provide the Anaheim Arena (Pond) where the Mighty Ducks have all of those sellout hockey games.

“Guns for tickets” has very questionable public safety value if any at all. Its real purpose could be just a publicity stunt by Disney to obtain support for more public funds from Anaheim, such as for Disneyland’s planned Westcot expansion.

BILL FITZGERALD

Anaheim