Los Angeles Times

Different views on need for guns

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Re “The self-defense myth,” Opinion, Aug. 4

David Hemenway’s article on the science that shows gun ownership and increased safety do not correlate is spot on.

I have long suspected that the National Rifle Assn. and similar groups have made gross exaggerati­ons in claiming that guns are necessary for adequate self-defense. Hemenway’s research clearly demonstrat­es the gaping holes in that argument.

Sadly, I fear that this research will be rejected out of hand by gun advocates just as critics of climate change have summarily dismissed the many scientific studies with evidence on the reality of global warming. Is this another inconvenie­nt truth?

Sharie Lieberg

Oxnard

Hemenway’s numbers on gun ownership do not tell the entire story. Here’s what the Cato Institute wrote in 2000:

“The 31 states that have ‘shall issue’ laws allowing private citizens to carry concealed weapons have, on average, a 24% lower violent crime rate, a 19% lower murder rate and a 39% lower robbery rate than states that forbid concealed weapons.... Remarkably, guns are used for self-defense more than 2 million times a year, three to five times the estimated number of violent crimes committed with guns.”

Hemenway’s statistics reflect that self-defense is a

reactive rather than a proactive problem.

Gun ownership is an inalienabl­e right under the natural law of self-defense and an enumerated right under the Constituti­on. Our founders defined the militia as all able citizens. Good skill and safety training is needed.

Stephen Smith

Eagle Rock

Hemenway’s piece shows there is a very big and still growing public health crisis in this country that no one is talking about as a crisis that must be treated.

Add guns to climatecha­nge denial, creationis­m, anti-vaccinatio­n, trickle-down tax cuts and many other national problems that have become so highly partisan that they are impervious to facts.

Americans will cling to their beliefs despite strong evidence to the contrary. We have simply become anti-intellectu­al and antilearni­ng. As long as we bend the empirical world to our rock-hard beliefs, our government will remain dysfunctio­nal.

Unless this country undergoes a much-needed enlightenm­ent, it will decline precipitou­sly.

Zareh Delanchian

Tujunga

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