Letters to the Editor: I had a six-month waiting period for my car. Why not the same for guns?

To the editor: We know guns are dangerous. So we should adopt safety regulations for them, just as we do with cars. (“Endless mass shootings make our outrage dim. We can’t let gun violence harden our hearts,” June 4)

I recently bought a car. I paid a deposit and waited six months for my car to arrive. Similarly, we can require gun buyers to pay a deposit, then take a 16-week gun safety course, just like taking a driver education course. The 16-week course would include the purchaser being assessed by a mental health professional.

At the end of the course, the purchaser could return to the retail shop where the deposit was made and present the license, insurance certificate and receipt for the required safe storage device. Just as with an annual registration of a car, the licensed gun owner would simply pay a renewal for the license.

Would this stop all guns deaths and injuries? No. Just like taking a driver education course, qualifying for a driver‘s license and having auto insurance do not stop stop all vehicle fatalities. But what these requirements do is make the roads safer.

It’s about time we do something similar to reduce the harm caused by guns by asking those who wish to bear arms to do the utmost to ensure the safety of their families, themselves and society.

Bob Alonzi, Van Nuys

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To the editor: Every day I see the news about gun violence slipping “below the fold.” Articles on the latest shootings get lost among those on elections, homelessness, the Ukraine war and the latest food trend or celebrity trial.

If a major newspaper like The Times is becoming so “ho-hum” about the horrific daily tragedies caused by guns in this country, it’s no wonder people soon forget until the next gut-wrenching mass murder.

Please keep gun violence in the public eye. It should be at the top of your feed, above the fold, every day so your readers won’t be lulled into complacency. It’s a war that must be covered in all its ugliness until change happens.

Jane Gould, South Pasadena

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To the editor: History has shown that politicians are not going to fix the gun crisis. Access to assault weapons and the lack of universal background checks are most definitely problems, but it seems like we always stop there.

What is the deeper problem we don’t want to face? It isn’t mental illness, although that comes out every time. Why are our citizens killing people? Strangers? What is going on in the fabric of our society?

One thing is for sure: These people are disconnected from humanity, from other people. The lives of others obviously don’t matter to them, nor does their own. Who is there for them? Social media is an illusion, a false community, a false connection.

If you have no feeling of acceptance, of worth, of belonging, but only shame and ridicule, should we be surprised that after a while people are going to snap?

We need to foster a better environment to live in. We need a place of kindness, perhaps of radical acceptance.

Jeff Rack, Altadena