Time for mandatory gun insurance
Sen. Dianne Feinstein declared that no law would have stopped the Las Vegas shooter. That’s because no real effort has been made to force mandatory responsibility for the carnage gun manufacturers and firearm owners cause. The answer is actually obvious, and it’s been proposed but quickly silenced by the gun lobby. Mandatory gun insurance is the answer.
They say “a car is like a loaded gun,” but why is a gun not treated like a running car? A car is registered and licensed.
The driver has to take a test, and insurance is mandatory.
If you want to own over 30 firearms like the shooter in Las Vegas, be prepared to pay more. If you store your firearms wisely, locked and trigger protected, you get a discount. Each car has a unique vehicle identification number that cannot be tampered with, without severe sanctions.
Each weapon actually already has a unique number, but it’s never registered. Each driver has to study a book of rules, and pass a test to certify knowledge of the rules. Each gun owner should have to do a similar training. If you’re going to use something that can kill, learn how to do it properly. Each driver must be insured while operating a car, or face criminal and financial penalties.
Health insurance became mandatory under the Affordable Care Act because of the realization that the costs to society are each individual’s responsibility. Even the conservative Cato Institute has studied this issue and found it not in violation of the Second Amendment. The best part of this would be to sic the insurance industry on the National Rifle Association! Now that’s a fair fight! Laurent Gabriel, Richmond
Not a terrorist
Regarding “Gun rights should be next sacrifice for public safety” (Willie Brown, Oct. 8): In referring to Stephen Paddock as a terrorist for the mass murder in Las Vegas, Willie Brown falls into the same trap of word misuse as many others.
A terrorist is defined as a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims, and terrorism as unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. Look it up.
As horrible as the act was, Paddock’s was a mass murder. As far as I’ve read, there was no plan for political aim. Ken Malucelli, Daly City
City amusement park
San Francisco ports are decaying, and questions are being asked about what should be done to these sites that were swarming with cargo boats less than 50 years ago. The overcrowded tourist sights all around the city are imploring the city of San Francisco to create new attractions for adults as well as the children. Transforming the decaying ports can be an electrifying development by pioneering an amusement park on the edge of land.
Give people of all ages an opportunity to get away from the demanding city life and enjoy a hot chocolate and churro on the pier. Take initiative to give back to the children of the community and build the amusement park San Franciscans have been waiting for. Naveed Ettefagh, San Jose
Constitutional right
I respect Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to leave the San Francisco 49ers and Indianapolis Colts game after some players took a knee during the national anthem. That was an easy call to make on his part. The more difficult decision would have been to stay for the game. The beauty of America is we can agree to disagree without being mean-spirited or disrespectful of one another. The last time I looked, the NFL players taking a knee were doing it to highlight injustice in this country. Their cause has nothing to do with disrespecting the flag or the anthem. That said, I wish Pence had stayed for the game. If he had, he would have stood for the players’ constitutional right to protest peacefully, not some fiction about what it means to be a patriotic American. Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach, Orange County
Multiple measures
“California students’ test scores flatline” (Oct. 9) reveals a significant problem with the use of standardized tests to measure students’ learning progress. The question of whether the scores on the Smarter Balanced Assessment are valid merely points out the fallacy that test scores alone can be used to measure student progress. Though it’s not mentioned in your article, California now requires schools to use multiple measures of student learning. Thankfully, test scores are just one of those measures. Tons of research and your article show that standardized tests will never be satisfactory by themselves. Rating schools by one measure, state standardized test scores, is unfair to schools, teachers and students. Paul Giganti, Albany