Phil Hartman

I was shocked and saddened by reading about Phil Hartman being killed and his wife committing suicide (May 29). One point that I am sure will not come up is the fact that both of them would still be alive if there was not a gun in the household.

I don’t know why they had a gun, maybe for “protection,” but, like so many times, the gun does not end up protecting the family but instead is used to kill a loved one or a stranger, either in a time of rage or by accident. Let this case be one more example that guns can cause much more harm than the supposed safety that they provide.

TONY NEWMAN

New York

* From 1984 through 1987, I lived next door to Phil Hartman in Sherman Oaks and typed a couple of scripts for him. Although I didn’t know him well, I was impressed by his kindness, his generosity of spirit, his authenticity. He was a down-to-earth, sweet person who seemed secure in himself and in his values.

Nothing will ever compensate for the loss of this gentle soul, but perhaps something positive can come of it--if it shakes us out of our complacency about the use of violence as a means of solving personal problems and shocks us into taking meaningful action to get rid of guns once and for all. Yes, some people will still commit murder even if guns are no longer available, but these cheap, deadly weapons make it far too easy for a person caught up in the passion of the moment to express anger or frustration in a horribly destructive, irreversible manner.

J.G. BERINSTEIN

Northridge