Mayhem Caused by One Gun

It irks me that your very dramatic Jan. 8 article, “One Gun Shatters Many Lives,” takes a full page before it gets to the real problem, the criminal.

I was the victim of a follow-home, armed robbery. My criminal had a 15-inch blade, drawing blood below my left ribs, aimed right at my heart. Did I feel less threatened because it was not a gun? Forget it. Knives don’t kill. People do.

CHARLES R. EDELSOHN

Los Angeles

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Your article was a real shocker! To think that there are people like those described running around loose in the city gives one the shivers. Particularly telling was the part where, “Heading back to the party, they laughed about the shooting.” This woman was shot for the offense of saying “what” to an indistinct demand for her cell phone.

I noticed that this “tough gang member” abandoned the robbery of a BMW driver when the driver “pulled out Mace spray.” Perhaps some of the other victims of this sociopath would be alive today if they had the means to defend themselves.

JOE METZ

Covina

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I’m struck by the lack of meaningful social commentary on the pending parole of Frank Lewis from the California Youth Authority in only two years, after a life of vicious criminal behavior culminating in the premeditated attempted murder and maiming of Lisa La Pierre.

Poor Lewis’ tough childhood was described in detail, yet not a word was broached on the egregious failure of the California legal system to permanently put away those violent repeat offenders among us who commit crimes with weapons--regardless of their age. In fact, the article implies that the brutal havoc rendered by Lewis was instead caused entirely by an inanimate gun.

I’m hardly a gun-nut, NRA type. I’m an emergency physician who takes care of the victims of violent crime. But I’m also tired of the obfuscation of the real issues in such cases in order to satisfy the political agenda of some antigun writer.

DANIEL LEVY MD

Santa Barbara