Guns and Courts

* Regarding “Goodby to Son Turned Out to Be Forever,” (May 29):

Having never lost a loved one to a violent death, I can only imagine the grief Mary Leigh Blek is going through and my sympathy is with her. But more gun-control laws are not the answer because they do not work!

Her son’s tragic death is an example of this failure. Mrs. Blek’s son was killed in New York City, a place where gun ownership by private citizens is prohibited by law. Did this gun prohibition save her son? Her son’s assailant was a 15-year-old boy. It is illegal for a minor to purchase a gun, though this law didn’t prevent Matthew’s death.

Mrs. Blek’s energies would be better spent focusing on a legal system that sentences two of her son’s assailants to only 3 1/3 years in prison! The laws are on the books; it is the enforcement, or lack thereof, that requires all of our attention.

RICHARD A. BOWEN

Foothill Ranch