Making bullet points

No new laws

Regarding “Targeting guns” editorial (Page B15, Sunday), there are enough gun laws on the books to keep control of guns. There are federal laws, state laws, city laws; the only law that should matter is the law of common sense that tells us that guns are inanimate objects that require thought, however stupid, to be put into action.

Most of the time, gun owners are rational human beings who know that guns are dangerous and are to be used to defend oneself in an emergency.

Gun owners do not “tolerate too many gun deaths” as the editorial states, but rather espouse the safe use of the guns in most instances.

Lawrence Keen, Pearland

Consider history

According to “How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution” by David B. Kopel, various gun control policies by the British following the Boston Tea Party, including a ban on firearm and gunpowder importation, tells us not only the purpose of the Second Amendment, but its relevance within the context of today’s gun control debate.

This effort to disarm the people has been going on for more than 200 years, and the American people still say “no.”

Darrell Bradley, Katy

Be aware

I support the editorial about our nation’s “tolerance” for gun violence; I do not accept the idea that nothing can be done.

I agree that many of our elected officials are afraid to support regulations that would reduce deaths and usage of guns. Thanks for your continued efforts to make more of us aware that we do have a major problem with guns.

Chuck Davidson, Chester

Let’s talk

I am so tired of hearing gun enthusiasts rally around the idea that gun control advocates want all firearms confiscated. Once and for all, please hear this: No one is taking your guns away!

It is a citizen’s constitutional right to bear arms, and that will not change. Yet any attempt to discuss gun safety evokes a hair-trigger response about their “rights being threatened.”

What gun control advocates want is an end to tragic and senseless massacres, and I’m sure gun enthusiasts want that, too. Owning all the guns in the world won’t save their children from being shot at school or their wives from being gunned down at the movie theater.

This is what both sides have in common: We all risk losing what matters most if we can’t have a reasonable discussion about gun safety. Susan Ellis Brittain,

Houston

Safety measures

As an American, I know I have a right to own a gun. But I do not want to be confronted by guns at the movie theater, grocery store, mall or on the street. In these family destinations, guns have no place.

My rights under the Second Amendment do not preclude me from undergoing a background check when I buy or sell a gun. My rights are not infringed when a doctor asks me about how I store my guns.

And I give up no rights by agreeing to store my guns in a way that no children will get them. So many gun deaths are preventable with just a few, easy measures. Measures which will make us all safer — even in gun-loving Texas.

Lisa Beckman, Houston