New Gun Owners Need Supervised Training
Re “Respecting Guns’ Power,” editorial, June 16: I would go one step further than state Sen. Jack Scott’s SB 52 and require that all handgun purchasers complete not only a firearms safety course but a course at a firing range supervised by a state-certified firearms instructor.
After returning from Vietnam in 1969, I was a weapons instructor assigned to a training command. In spite of hours of instruction as well as personal supervision, numerous recruits would attempt to exit the firing line with loaded weapons with a live round in the chamber. This is to be expected when people who have never handled a weapon, let alone fired one, come into possession of one.
Supervised training, including cleaning a handgun after range time, is the only way new handgun owners can be expected to understand as well as respect the potential power they hold in their hands.
Larry Sorrentino
North Hollywood
The Times shares the belief of Scott that Americans living in California should be forced to pay a fee, pass a test and supply their fingerprints to the police to be granted permission to exercise a constitutional right. Chilling indeed.
Steve Hardy
Duarte
I have answers to the questions posed by John Lott in “Zero Tolerance Equals Zero Thinking” (Commentary, June 13). He asks what we are really teaching children by zero tolerance. We are teaching them to behave appropriately in school. He gives an example of a student being suspended for pointing a pencil and saying “Pow.” Perhaps if that child had been listening to the teacher’s math or reading lesson it would have served a better purpose. He gives an example of children bringing toy guns to school. School is a place for learning, not play. In addition, throwing peanuts in school is just plain rude and impudent behavior.
I was a teacher and would never have tolerated such rowdy behavior in my room. I was not a strict disciplinarian, but each student’s rights ended where they infringed on the rights of the next student.
Ellen Reich
Malibu