Gun Deaths, Impact of Violence on Children

Re “U.S. Called Capital of Child Gun Deaths,” Feb. 7:

After the Centers for Disease Control reported last spring on the number of firearms-related deaths among our teenagers, Congress voted to limit available funds for reporting such facts. Now, CDC is reporting that our youngsters are 12 times more likely to die by gunfire than their counterparts in the rest of the industrialized world. One wonders how soon the National Rifle Assn. and the Gun Owners of America will orchestrate a further reduction of CDC reportage funds.

John Velleco, of GOA, found comparisons with other countries meaningless, since he thinks there is a serious problem with our young people that is not tied to gun availability. He makes the point that guns have never been more strictly regulated. Objective gun experts will tell you that while there are laws prohibiting gun sales to minors, there are any number of parking lot opportunities for such sales at sanctioned gun shows, which may even flout limitations on assault weapons.

It would seem that the real culprits are those 2nd Amendment loyalists who continue to claim their individual right to bear arms. Such individual rights were discounted as constitutionally guaranteed in 1875 in U.S. vs. Cruik- shank, where it was affirmed that each state had the right to maintain and equip a militia.

WARREN WILKE

Ventura

* The results of The Times Poll of adults regarding violence in our city (“4 of 10 in L.A. Know a Victim of Violence,” Feb. 10) does not come as a surprise to anyone working to curb violence and abuse against children. A recent nationwide poll of 12- to 17-year-old girls and boys commissioned by the Children’s Institute International found that 37.5% of American teenagers personally knew someone who had been shot.

Your poll results produced one ray of hope. Respondents by a 2-1 margin seemed to agree that we should stop focusing most of our attention on the back end of the problem, such as building more jails and trauma centers, and concentrate on the root causes of violence. Parents, educators and local officials should focus attention on the prevention of the child abuse that breeds violent behavior later in life. This is the kind of approach that will not only curb crime, but will help create a society where children no longer fear for their own safety, where they can do what they do best--just be children.

MARY EMMONS, Exec. Dir.

Children’s Institute International

Los Angeles