Tuesday, August 24, 1999

Assembly Vote on Unsafe Handguns

* Re "Assembly Votes to Ban Handguns Deemed Unsafe," Aug. 20: To all would-be gun prohibitionists, please take a lesson from alcohol prohibition and the drug war. Should you succeed in banning guns, all you will achieve is gun anarchy, a huge black market in guns. Instead of the nicely regulated system you have now with numbered guns that are traceable to their owners, you will have unnumbered guns traceable to no one. Don't like Saturday night specials? With thousands of machinists making guns in backyard shops, there are going to be a lot more of them.

KIT MAIRA
San Fernando