Inner-City Violence and Gun Control

As a life member of the NRA, I appreciated Petievich’s relatively calm, objective outline of the differences between the NRA and current gun control activists.

He feels little can be done to improve the situations of dysfunctional families that produce inner-city gang members. NRA believes that society can and should improve urban education and employment prospects to relieve the boredom and despair that lead to gang membership.

Petievich suggests prosecution of persons identified as gang members. NRA opposes infringement on any constitutional right, including the First Amendment right of persons to freely assemble. Not even gang members should be guilty by association.

He makes the curious assertion that gun control would make guns less available, forcing criminals to steal them. Prohibition did not make alcohol, cocaine, prostitution, pornography, homosexual contact or handguns less available.

The clearest difference between Petievich and NRA is his desire to return to the days of knives and baseball bats. We don’t believe time can be turned back, or that knowledge can be erased. When significant portions of the nation’s young men have nothing better to look forward to than a life of street crime, there are serious underlying social and cultural problems that must be addressed.

To pursue the chimera of crime control by gun control is a naively short-sighted approach, and will accomplish nothing.

MICHAEL J. NOWLAND

Simi Valley