Debate Over Gun Control
Re “Delivering Death,” editorial, May 14: Do the National Rifle Assn. supporters who insist that the only way to bring an end to teenage violence is through “a change in the moral and cultural climate,” rather than gun controls, not understand that easy access to guns is a part of that moral and cultural climate? It’s not that changes in gun control laws will in themselves change people’s morals, but they reflect cultural attitudes that in turn influence morals. Take away access to guns, and a huge part of the idea of violence is taken away with it.
We cannot expect people, especially impressionable youth, to have a completely objective moral sense of responsibility disassociated from their culture, and, unfortunately, the predominant cultural climate for too many Americans is one of not only acceptance but glorification of violence.
NANCY DA SILVEIRA
Claremont
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I strongly protest the continued demonization of the NRA on your editorial page and in letters to the editor. It is obvious that people who viciously attack the NRA know very little about this grass-roots organization with almost 3 million members. The NRA that I know promotes the safe, responsible and lawful use of firearms. To claim that anyone has direct responsibility for the massacre in Littleton other than the killers is absurd.
Yet The Times has printed many letters that blame the NRA for the massacre. It is obvious that the media, in their quest to see the 2nd Amendment destroyed, are committed to the vilification of the NRA.
DON HEADLAND JR.
Morro Bay
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You have to pity those Republican senators, caught between what the gun lobby paid them to do and what the voters elected them to do.
HOWARD BENSEN
Woodland Hills
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The latest hysteria concerning background checks for gun purchases illustrates the complete failure of our justice system. If our government officials really want to protect us from criminals, why don’t they just keep criminals in jail? The answer is that our leaders do not want to punish the unlawful, because it gives them power. To control the population, more restrictive laws are needed. The good are punished with the bad.
DAVE HUNNICUTT
Mission Viejo