Gun March

* Re “Protests Take Aim at Guns,” May 15: Perhaps the reason that Los Angeles “historically has had trouble drawing large numbers of people to such events” is that the press has had trouble arriving at proper estimates of crowd attendance. I joined the Westwood march for gun control Sunday morning. There were many more than 2,000 people at the rally in favor of gun control and nothing like the 650 you report as being present to protest gun control. I would say there were maybe 65 at best.

Your article suggests a ratio of 3 to 1 when in fact those who came to support gun control outnumbered the NRA faction by more than 50 to 1. We showed up on Sunday morning to be counted. So please don’t underreport our numbers.

HEIDI BARRON

Los Angeles

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To the “million moms”: Every person who has ever committed a violent act with a firearm had two things in common; he or she had a gun and a mom. A gun has no capacity to influence a person’s moral character. A mom does. Million moms, stop blaming the object and seeking to punish law-abiding gun owners. Ending the violence begins at home.

STEPHEN BONDS

Van Nuys

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How insulting to print Michael Ramirez’s May 14 cartoon on the Million Mom March. Whether or not you agree with their thinking, how tasteless to print a cartoon such as his. How utterly insensitive to the grief that these thousands of mothers suffer, having lost children to gunfire.

MYRNA PEYSER

Chatsworth

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Ramirez may have reached a new low Sunday. What is his point, that grieving mothers with dead children who are trying to curb the American tragedy of gun violence are pompous idiots, deserving only of another indignity from his pen? Ramirez is entitled to his opinion, but shame on The Times for lending space and credence to his hurtful rants.

JIM WASHBURN

Costa Mesa

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The NRA’s generous offer of $1 million for classroom instruction makes me quiver with anticipation (May 13). I wonder how many classrooms there are in America and who will get a generous slice of this amazing pie.

Now, we’ve got to figure out what classes to drop so this massive education program can go forward. We could drop art classes--only pantywaist kids do that, or reading--you don’t need to know how read to pull a trigger, or perhaps math, except kids wouldn’t know how to count the number of bullets needed to load a clip.

Oh, well, I’m sure Charlton Heston and his cronies will figure that out for all of us.

WARREN HAMILTON JR.

North Hollywood

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Re “FBI Database Problem Halts Gun Sales Nationwide,” May 13: The United States has just been involved in a sample test of a complete ban on gun sales. Did the violence stop? No, and it won’t until individuals take responsibility for their own actions.

The answer to violence cannot be found in more laws. We must be responsible for our actions and let the government enforce the current laws.

BLAINE WOODWARD

La Habra