Gun Killings

Re “Gunman Kills LAPD Chief’s Granddaughter,” May 30:

Maybe it will take the tragic shooting of L.A. Police Chief Bernard Parks’ granddaughter, Lori Gonzalez, to wake up those in power. Our streets are in the hands of terrorists.

If these terrorists were from Libya, Serbia or anywhere else outside our borders, you had better believe that every military group from the ROTC to the National Guard and heavy weapons units would be out in full force.

But no, it’s just our little street gangs. Terrorists are terrorists and they are violating our civil rights.

PATTI LAUNDERS

Nipomo

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According to your article, Gonzalez was driving from the parking lot of a Popeyes restaurant when she and a companion were ambushed by an assailant and she was shot to death. LAPD Cmdr. David Kalish is quoted as saying, “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I object to the use of this expression. The fact is she was in a place she had a right to be and at a time she had a right to be there. The only wrong that was done was by the man who murdered her.

RICHARD J. CHRYSTIE

Orange

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Another school shooting, this time a teacher dead (May 27). However, the gut-wrenching questions about this shooting (Why this student? Why this teacher? Why this town? How did he get the gun?) are painfully irrelevant to the prevention of gun violence. Such shootings are part of American life, while they have been virtually eliminated in countries with strong gun-control laws. The path to prevention of gun violence is not a mystery. The path is clear.

How many more killings will we endure before we put the lives of our fellow citizens before the profits of the gun industry? This is the only relevant question to be asked, every day, after every new shooting tragedy.

JAMES H. DWYER, Professor

Dept. of Preventive Medicine

Keck School of Medicine, USC

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Charlton Heston, shake cold dead hands with Barry Grunow, a beloved Florida teacher. Tell him how guns don’t kill, just 13-year-old children.

BOB RUBENSTEIN

Malibu

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What kind of Shirley Jackson-type lottery are we playing here? Oh dear! Another school shooting. How terrible. But it hasn’t happened here yet. I work for a school district and I can tell you I don’t make enough money to go to work each day wondering if I’m putting my life on the line.

Any candidate who proposes shutting down all schools until this gun issue is resolved gets my unlimited support.

PATRICIA R. JONES

Claremont

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Howard Carmean (Voices, May 27) accuses those of us who sympathize with the Million Mom March of being emotional and unprepared with the “facts” as propounded by the NRA. The fact is we have children murdering other children. And they don’t do it with knives or rocks or clubs. The fact is they do it with guns. The fact is the NRA and people like Carmean teach children they have the right to settle their disputes with gunfire. The fact is they are wrong. The fact is the death of even one child is too much.

ANNETTE ROON

Arcadia