Reducing Gun Violence

Contrary to what The Times believes (“Local Wars Against Guns,” editorial, Nov. 26), the best approach for reducing gun violence is not for Congress to pass more inclusive legislation, but for President Clinton and the executive branch of our federal government to start enforcing our existing gun laws.

Under federal law, it is illegal for any person with a prior felony conviction to possess a gun. Violation is punishable by 10 years in federal prison, no parole. You claim in your editorial that 69,000 prospective buyers with histories of felony convictions, domestic violence or severe mental illness were barred from purchasing handguns, yet statistics from the U.S. General Accounting Office show only seven convictions!

If local governments want an effective program to reduce gun violence and crime, they need to look no further than Richmond, Va., where Congress has funded “Project Exile.” There, federal prosecutors have aggressively enforced the felon-in-possession laws. The results have cut the city’s homicide rate, which in 1997 was the second-highest in the nation, by more than half!

TODD SANDS

Camarillo

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You state that “last year alone, background checks by vendors barred handguns to 69,000 prospective buyers with histories of felony convictions, domestic violence or severe mental illness.”

Why then has the Department of Justice only brought charges against a few dozen of these lawbreakers in the last five years, leaving felons by the thousands free to prey on us? The proliferation of unenforced laws is akin to stopping AIDS by passing out condoms known to be defective.

J. WILLIAM STINDE

Torrance