Letters to the Editor: We regulate food and drugs. Why not also stringently regulate guns?

To the editor: The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 was enacted “for preventing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors,” and for regulating traffic of those goods. (“California proves that stricter gun laws save lives,” column, June 5)

We didn’t take away everyone’s food, medicine or alcohol. We just realized that there was a serious potential for harm if we didn’t monitor these resources that were so widely accessible, and set regulations to counteract the dangers of careless or deceptive individuals handling them.

It hasn’t prevented all cases of illness or poisoning, but it has contributed to the saving of millions of American lives.

The law isn’t perfect, which is why we’ve since amended it, but it was right because it saved lives. Congress debated for more than 20 years before passing it, particularly because food, medicine and liquor are all big businesses. We’re safer today because Congress passed the law.

It’s astounding that our current federal laws don’t treat something as blatantly dangerous as guns in a similar manner.

Aimée La Fountain, Nutley, N.J.

..

To the editor: Columnist George Skelton uses the gun death rate to make his argument, but he never mentions that this includes suicides.

Looking at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s data for the homicide rate (which is what most of us worry about when we think about guns), California, despite its draconian laws, is right in the middle of the states, tied at 22nd with Alaska, Kansas and Wisconsin.

This is such an obvious omission that it is poor journalism at best.

Jaco van der Colff, Woodland Hills

..

To the editor: I appreciate Skelton’s piece on California’s strict gun laws.

For too long much of the media coverage about gun violence was about the details of a mass shooting and politicians’ cries for thoughts and prayers, and very little about how government could provide remedies to this national disgrace. The focus on legislation is important, as is showing the country that California, with its strict laws, has one of the lowest gun death rates in the nation.

As Californians, we need to speak up and speak out to our fellow states about how restrictions work to reduce gun violence in our communities.

Sheila Goldberg, Venice

The writer is a board member of Women Against Gun Violence.