(2 of 3)
Why not sell revolver bullets in the same way we sell dangerous drugs: by prescription only, and in strictly limited amounts? Non-renewable prescriptions, of course. If more are required, one will have to ante up a new R. In this way, store owners and messengers and private eyes and others who feel the need for protection of a hand gun will be able to shoot if they must; but will have to account to their local precinct.
(Mrs.) Marie Berler Syosset, N. Y.
As TIME has pointed out so succinctly, the crime problem in our nation today is serious and there are no easy solutions. Yet one theme runs throughout any comprehensive report on violent crime: the frequent use of handguns to commit these despicable acts.
Although we know that handguns kill 10,000 Americans each year, that they are used in one of every three robberies, and one of every four aggravated assaults, and that they were used to murder 73% of the police officers killed between 1962 and 1974—still we tolerate the presence of at least 40 million of these lethal weapons in our midst.
It is my conviction that we must act now to eliminate the unnecessary nightmares that come out of the barrels of these easily obtained handguns. They are clearly public enemy No. 1, and must be dealt with through legislation to effectively control their manufacture, distribution, importation and possession.
Tom Bradley
Mayor
Los Angeles
I tend to think the escalating crime rate in this country is merely a symptom of a spreading disease within our society. The sickness, and therefore the problem, lies in our growing affluence. This places an unbearable burden on many people to successfully compete and attain the so-called good life. The rising crime rate is an indication that an increasing number of people cannot compete successfully within the system and so must resort to outside means.
William S. Grogan Natick, Mass.
What ever became of that favorite expression "as old as sin"? A candid recognition of sin as the root of all crime goes further toward identifying, with honesty and forthrightness, the causes and consequent remedy than does your euphemism "trampling the rules."
Donald P. Kirkwood Beaver Falls, Pa.
You've ignored the lesson taught us by Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment, in which the motivation, not the murderer, is the elusive element. Prisons are full of lawbreakers who want to get caught. Those who don't want to get caught generally don't. If you fail to punish a criminal you are probably frustrating his most basic human need.
Nobody ever expiated sin listening
to hifi. The criminal needs to pay a debt
to society. That's what crime is all about.
Alfred Sundel
New York City
In order to eliminate half of the crime problems, we must ask our legislators to repeal half of the laws that arbitrarily and unnecessarily attempt to legislate particular versions of morality.
William B. Hackett HI Santa Barbara, Calif.
Cry Wolfe
Robert Hughes says that Tom Wolfe's book, The Painted Word [June 23], contains so many "elementary howlers" there's not room enough to list them; but, he assures your readers, "one example will do for all."