Gun Education Is the Answer

Banning handguns or placing more controls on them is not the realistic solution to tragic gun accidents (“Another Tragic Gun Accident,” editorial, June 30).

We use sex education in our schools to protect our children from AIDS. Mothers Against Drunk Driving has put together effective school and public education and information programs that have significantly reduced drunk driving accidents and deaths.

Education and information are the answers to further reductions in gun accidents. Both the number and rate of gun accident deaths in the U.S. have been in steady decline since the 1930s. Education and information are the main reasons. It is certainly not a reduction in the number of firearms.

The National Rifle Assn.’s Eddie Eagle safety program has taught tens of thousands of children across the U.S. about the dangers of firearms with excellent results. (It is an unbiased, nonpolitical approach to gun safety that does not teach gun use or shooting.)

But the politically correct climate that The Times and others promote in Southern California would not dare expose our children to anything to do with firearms or the NRA. I wonder why, if it could protect them.

If you believe that firearms education would encourage children to experiment with guns, what is the rationale for sex education? Sticking your head in the sand has never been an answer.

MICHAEL E. SMITH

Placentia

* In this editorial there are two issues. One is the death of a young boy. The other is disguised within your comments on this tragic event. Shame on you for using this incident as a cover for your favorite issue, “banning” all handguns from the United States. You are wrong!

I was born and raised in upstate New York, I am an Eagle Scout, and I was not allowed to fire even a .22 rifle until I had completed a National Rifle Assn. safety course. My father had several handguns and rifles. I am 53 years old and to this day I cannot imagine the repercussions if I had even touched one of his weapons without permission, let alone taken one to school or gone out with the intent of killing another person.

Back then it was called discipline and a great deal of respect, and the pure terror of the consequences of my actions. And therein lies the root causes of most of the problems in our society today. You can focus on one single issue at a time, but it is a much larger problem and it involves the entire spectrum of our society. Everybody wants government (or someone else) to take care of their problems, no one is responsible, no one is accountable, it is always someone else’s fault, and most of all there is no discipline.

JON J. THOMAS

Huntington Beach