Working to round up guns
ON THE same day that the Globe criticized police Commissioner Edward Davis's proposal to search homes for guns in heavy crime areas ("A questionable search for safety," Editorial, Nov. 21), at least two gun-related stories appeared in the paper, and there were reports of at least 10 gun-related crimes nationwide: three in Texas (teenagers shot and several arrested after drive-by shootings), one in Georgia (a teenager shot dead), two in South Carolina, one in Oklahoma, a triple shooting in Las Vegas, one teen arrested in California, one shot dead in Miramar, Fla., and an arrest for killing a 5-year-old boy in Illinois.
More than 60 people have been killed in Boston this year.
The safeguards that Davis has put in place are sensible; permission is sought in each case of a home search.
This is a positive, proactive step, short of banning guns, to halt escalating lethal crime. When are we going to get sensible and get everybody behind this kind of move?
LEW DABNEY
Chestnut Hill
The writer is a member of Massachusetts Against Trafficking Handguns.
RE "HIGH Court to examine gun rights case" (Page A2, Nov. 21): While Washington, D.C., officials say that the city's prohibition on gun ownership "is designed to reduce gun violence," it is apparent from the photograph that accompanied the article that the law has failed.
Among the long arms shown, for example, are an old US M1 Garand and a Japanese Arisaka carbine. Not only are these weapons never used in crime, one can hardly even find ammunition for the latter. Most of the rest of the long arms are everyday sporting guns.
Then, on the wall, there are at least eight antique or replica cap-and-ball revolvers, which haven't been used in a crime since the West was won. Hardly one crook in a million would even know how to load one.
If anything, Washington's gun ban seems to have deprived collectors of their antiques.
FRANK E. MULLEN
North Easton 