America’s Gun Fight

Re “The Big Lie of the Assault Weapons Ban,” Commentary, June 28: John R. Lott Jr. states that the anti-gun crowd “hysterically claimed that blood would flow in the streets after states passed right-to-carry laws letting citizens carry concealed handguns, but that never occurred.”

With our world-leading per capita murder rate, it seems as if the blood is already flowing in our streets. Lott and those who live in such a state of fear that they feel compelled to be armed might become more enlightened if they were to stop spewing meaningless statistics and start paying attention to the only number with real meaning: the daily body count in our streets.

Paul Panza

Ramona

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The real lie of the assault weapons ban is not that crime has gone down or up, but that Lott would have us believe that no crimes are related to guns. We will see genuine changes in the patterns of violence when the total manufacture, control and sale of guns are controlled. However, this will never happen in the U.S. because we are thoroughly fascinated with them in our movies and, of course, they are the ultimate male phallic symbol.

Ralph Mitchell

Monterey Park