Taking aim at Somali pirates

Re “The price of piracy,” editorial, April 14

If Somali pirates want to play Russian roulette with commercial cargo carriers, why not play their game? Why not place Navy SEALs or mercenaries on random ships?

The pirates would not know which ships were armed. They would take a chance whenever they attacked any ship. With sniper rifles on board, pirates would not be able to approach without risk of deadly fire. This would be more cost-effective than supplying warships to patrol open waters. After the pirates figure out that their easy prey is no longer available, they will stop their pirating.

Howard Kunihiro

Cypress

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Both U.S. gun sales and unemployment rates are soaring. There must be thousands of frustrated unemployed men with automatic weapons. The obvious solution to the pirate melodrama is to put a bunch of these men on every cargo ship.

Picking off pirates would be so much more satisfying than target practice -- and someone else would buy the ammo!

Shipping companies wouldn’t even have to furnish weapons. Insurance rates would plummet. What’s the downside?

Ronald Soderquist

Thousand Oaks

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In your otherwise excellent editorial, you write that for many pirates in Somalia, it’s either “starving on shore” or dying as a pirate.

In a country where the cost of a gun may equal a year’s wage, there is no justification for starvation nor for piracy. The proliferation of weapons indicates that the Somalis should be more concerned about their own people, and should spend their money on food instead of guns.

Ernest Zimdars

Claremont