Gun Dealer Fee Hike

* Why is it that instead of dealing with the real issue of crime, the Clinton Administration, per Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, proposes to increase the annual licensing fees to $600 for gun dealers (Jan. 4)?

Doesn’t this Administration understand the term free market ? This $600 licensing increase is only going to be passed down to gun buyers through higher gun prices, not to mention forcing many private gun companies out of business. Perhaps the reason why there are more gun dealers than gas stations is because our government has failed in its primary function: to protect the governed.

BRAD BARTH

Yorba Linda

* Controlling guns by raising the cost of gun dealers’ licenses is like trying to control illegal drugs by raising pharmacists’ license fees. Doesn’t Clinton and his tired old Cabinet understand that all of these naive efforts don’t even begin to address the problem? Criminals don’t look to licensed gun dealers for guns.

I am not a gun nut. I have been trained by the military and as a police officer in the use and handling of guns. I took great comfort in the fact that while Daryl Gates and Tom Bradley stood by and let the rioters run rampant after the Koon-Powell acquittals in the Rodney King case, I had the means to protect my family and myself.

The key to gun control must start with disarming criminals. Before we disarm citizens, let’s get our armed protectors to disarm the enemy--the gangs and criminals. Then and only then can we turn in our weapons.

JERRY KERN

Glendale