Gun Ownership and the Crime Rate

The intent of Al Martinez’s Jan. 3 column (“For Love of the Gun”) reflects his moronic views about gun ownership, not the least of which is that all gun owners are violent and irresponsible. When will he and others like him get it? People kill people, guns don’t!

On the same page was an article about the rising crime rate in all categories, violent and nonviolent. Are gun owners the reason why gang membership is up and the number of police officers in L.A. is down? Are the responsible gun owners the reason why the CRASH program (the very effective LAPD anti-gang program) has ended or that drug sales are on the rise?

If Martinez wants a frontier mentality, bring back the judges that quickly and severely dispatched those who broke laws. There are many good laws on the books today that, if enforced properly and efficiently, would keep guns out of the hands of many who should not have them.

Bring back CRASH and worthwhile after-school programs that have been proven to add self-esteem to young people. Give youth the choices to opt for nonviolent ways to express themselves.

DON SCHWARZ

Sherman Oaks

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Martinez’s opinion is not only way extreme--it’s childish. Just two points for him to ponder:

1. If guns are outlawed, only criminals would own them. If they couldn’t buy them on the black market, they would make zip guns.

2. If this latest jackass who shot seven co-workers didn’t have a gun, he probably would have made a bomb (or used a knife or club).

If Martinez wants to place his hatred in the right direction, maybe he ought to consider attacking rap hate music or the super-violent sleaze that Hollywood pumps out and romanticizes. Leave it to The Times to pump out extremes, almost always giving the viewpoint that liberalism is good and conservatives are a bunch of backward, old-fashioned, gun-toting killers who are ruining this country.

PAUL A. SMITH

Santa Fe Springs

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I think Ron Lowe was right when he said of Michael McDermott, “All it took were guns to manifest and express his inner demons” (letter, Jan. 2). That is because guns do kill and do a good job of it. Had he used a knife or some other weapon, maybe most of those workers in Massachusetts would have had a chance to overpower McDermott and live. Automatic weapons, etc., are not needed, except for a nation’s military.

MITCHELL RABUCHIN

Lake Balboa

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So the statistics show that homicide rates are climbing (“Homicide Rate Up 27.6% for Year in L.A.,” Jan. 3). Guess what? The rate at which LAPD officers are receiving unwarranted complaints against them is climbing also. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a law professor to figure out the correlation between the two. Cops need to feel that they have some backup in order to do an effective job. Crime is more deterred by aggressive police work than by “juvenile programs” or fewer “high-powered weapons.”

And now, in one of the divisions with a higher homicide rate, the officers’ arrest records will be examined to see if they have a “less aggressive approach” toward police work. What then? A quota system to increase performance? This benefits no one. Wait until the Department of Justice consent decree items are forced on officers. If you think they are less aggressive now, you haven’t seen anything yet!

If you want the homicide rate to go down, bring the morale of the LAPD up.

OFFICER JIM PARKER

Hollywood Division, LAPD