Letters: No to more of the same on guns

Re “Another kind of gun control,” Opinion, May 5

David M. Kennedy’s Op-Ed article saying that efforts to curtail gun violence should be focused on “hot” groups and areas, instead of on doomed legislation, was a refreshing moment of clarity in this debate. The recent massacres certainly demand a focused, spirited response, but current gun control measures being pushed do nothing to address the root causes of these horrible events.

Rather than infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens, the focus should be on enforcing current laws to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, implementing a robust overhaul of mental health services to recognize and treat those who may have the potential to carry out mass murder, and targeting the inner-city gangs that are responsible for an outsized proportion of gun violence.

It does no good to mount a heavy-handed, illogical campaign against gun rights to allay public fears.

Michael Han

Anaheim

In dealing with gun violence, few analysts acknowledge the use of guns by ordinary adult citizens (about half of all Americans say they have a gun in their households). We are all capable of losing our tempers and striking out. And if a gun is at hand, it may result in murder.

We read frequent reports of people killing over child custody, because of firing from a job, ejection from a party and so on. In these instances, if there were no gun at hand, no one would get killed.

With a third of a billion firearms in circulation and growing rapidly, accidents and violence involving guns won’t decrease any time soon.

Bert Eifer

Woodland Hills

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