Shootout in North Hollywood

The robbery and gun battle in North Hollywood will settle into a fruitless debate, for most will dismiss that there is evil in the world and therefore continue to not understand how futile gun control is. Many will comment on a lack of balance in firepower. There really wasn’t. LAPD proved that it is not the size of the weapon in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the one with the weapon. Their training and courage carried them through.

As a police officer for the past 16 years I found once again that no matter what, when you need help, we show up and stay. Few today see examples of those that earnestly strive and magnify the concepts of the words “valiant,” “noble,” “duty,” “honor” or “commitment.” For a few hours Feb. 28, there were examples of those officers who define these words. They showed up, stayed, tried, bled and won. Thank them.

STEVE CHAUNCEY

Huntington Beach

* I propose that henceforth Feb. 28 be officially known as Police Appreciation Day. After the Rodney King trial, the ’92 riots and the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, the LAPD have shown their colors: true blue. These men and women--these heroes--deserve a parade. God bless the LAPD, and may this force always be with us.

CHRISTOPHER DILL

Los Angeles

* Apparently, our legal system failed us again (March 2). These two hard-core criminals had a previous run-in with the law back in 1993 when they were arrested by Glendale authorities for flagrant weapons violations.

The two men faced up to eight years in prison for the firearms violation and for conspiracy to commit robbery, but only received a “slap on the wrist” with less than four months in jail. How is gun control supposed to be effective if there is no criminal control?

TIM BRAGG

Eagle Rock

* Two crooks, armed like elite paratroopers, armored like human tanks, blast away at cops firing handguns that are more than sufficient for most of the incidents that cops find themselves in. The result? A call for arming cops like elite paratroopers.

Why should anybody be able to walk into a gun store, or to go to a black market, and be able to buy full-metal-jacket bullets, semi- automatic weapons that can easily be converted to full auto, 100-round clips, along with armored bodywear that can deflect 9-mm rounds? Do we sell armored bodywear to hunters because of a new strain of moose that fights back with M-16s?

I’m not insensitive to the plight of outgunned cops. I tip my hat to the guts that LAPD showed in facing down these lunatics and in gunning them down. Let’s find another way to protect those cops. Let’s not lose this opportunity to open a discussion of rational gun control--the kind that recognizes that gun ownership is a constitutional right, but that also recognizes that selling battlefield weapons and armor-piercing ordnance to thugs is not quite what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

TERRY WELLS

Encinitas

* In response to the horrific crime committed in North Hollywood, I would like to be the first to propose the obvious solution welling up in liberal politicians everywhere--more gun control laws.

Regardless of the fact that automatic weapons have been banned; regardless of the fact that AK-47 “assault rifles” have been banned from importation; regardless of the fact that reported “armor piercing” bullets are illegal--I am firmly convinced that this tragedy could have been averted with even more restrictive gun control laws.

MIKE MONAHAN

Lancaster

* In response to the Bank of America gunfight, Bill Boyarsky (“A Violent Script That Defines Our Lives,” The Spin, March 1) insists that television and movies are to blame for heavily armed criminals turning L.A. into the “vicious old Wild West.” He neglects to inform us how, lacking television and radio, the old Wild West became vicious. Boyarsky then blames “society” for allowing “every” vicious criminal and nut to get fully automatic weapons, oblivious to the fact that access to fully automatic weapons has been severely restricted since enactment of the National Firearms Act in 1934.

BRUCE EDELMAN

North Hollywood

* Somewhere in Los Angeles a botched bank robbery, armed professionals trying to outgun the police, shooting in the streets, citizens caught in the cross-fire, mayhem, smashed windows, bullet-riddled cars and buildings, police and citizens injured, some of the suspects killed. Was that the movie “Heat” or was that real life? I am now convinced that life can really imitate art!

HASAN HAIDERI

Costa Mesa

* I could not believe that people were angry when the LAPD had a shootout in Northridge Feb. 25. To my amazement I watched on every local television station the bank robbery gone haywire in North Hollywood. We all witnessed how LAPD officers put their lives on the line to apprehend these armed robbers, who had no regard for the lives of anyone!

CARDWELL LYNCH II