Gun Violence, Gun Control
* As I follow the frightfully sad story of the wretchedly violent death of 14-year-old Carl Dan Claes (May 24, 25), and worry about the future of my 4-year-old son, I wonder what is the position of the National Rifle Assn.? Should Carl Dan Claes have carried a gun of his own and fired first?
LARRY GOLDBERG
Laguna Hills
* In the past The Times editorialized that fear of drug sellers, or street gangsters, or even terrorists did not justify abrogating the procedural guarantees of our law under the Bill of Rights. Now, however, your oft-stated desire to persecute the more than 50 million law-abiding Americans who keep guns in their homes leads you to advocate “some reductions of search and seizure protections” (editorial, May 22) to accomplish the gun confiscations you demand.
You have long asserted that the 2nd Amendment does not mean what it says; that it does not recognize any “right of the people to keep” guns but rather some vague power of states to maintain troops. Will you now tell us that the 4th Amendment’s “right of the people to the be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects” is equally without meaning?
Your suggestion that we should throw over the 4th and 5th amendments in order to harass peaceful citizens while maintaining their protection for actual criminals calls your very sanity into question. By contrast, I am proud to support all of the Bill of Rights, all of the time, as applied to absolutely everyone.
MARK SEECOF
Glendale
* Your article on the recently passed state Senate Bill 933, which would ban guns known as “Saturday night specials” (May 19), cited opponents as calling it a useless gesture that would shut down six local manufacturing plants. The measure will be heard by the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 13.
As your article pointed out, a disproportionate number of these weapons are used in crimes because they are so easily concealed. They can fit in a child’s hand. In 1993, most of the guns confiscated by law enforcement were Saturday night specials. The guns are ridiculously cheap, selling for as little as $35. And they are plentiful--nearly 700,000 such weapons were made here in Southern California 1992. This is not a useless gesture.
Would it put the manufacturers out of business? We doubt it. They began making Saturday night specials when the overseas manufacturers were banned from exporting to the U.S. Local manufacturers have profited from that ban. I suspect they will readily adapt to other market forces. But the criminals will lose their cheap, easily hidden weapons. We will have made life a little more difficult for them, and that is surely worth doing.
ANN REISS LANE, Coordinator
Women Against Gun Violence
A Project of American Jewish Congress
Los Angeles