Readers React: What the U.S. can learn from Australia on gun control

To the editor: Chicago’s experience with tough firearms laws and widespread violent crime show that gun control is not an issue that any single city or state can address effectively. Americans are free to travel to other cities and states. (“Obama wants nationwide gun laws to fill in gaps left by local efforts,” Oct. 25)

We need a national response, like Australia’s.

Australians, hardly models of buttoned-up conformity, saw the need for gun laws and passed them after suffering the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, in which 35 were killed and many others wounded. Since then, not a single mass shooting has taken place in that country in almost 20 years.

In contrast, the U.S. has about one a day.

Between 1996 and 2006, Australia also had an overall reduction in firearm homicides of 59%. Australians still own millions of firearms, but they are rifles, shotguns and handguns, not semiautomatic war weapons, and they are registered.

Why are Australians so much smarter than us?

Scott McKenzie, La Cañada Flintridge

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To the editor: Aside from the mental illness and gun control issue, the real problem is a lack of morals and values, not the weakness of gun laws.

Why do so many people think it is acceptable to kill others for whatever reason? For most of us, the thought of killing would never cross our minds, and we have our parents, schools, churches and communities to thank for instilling in us the morals that lead to healthy and productive lives.

Moral character is the missing component in this ugly war on violence. We’re trying to solve an irrational problem with rational minds, and it is not going to work.

Just changing gun laws won’t solve the problem.

Jan MacMichael, South Pasadena

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To the editor: We will never be able to manage gun control until we establish responsibility with gun owners like we do with our other legal method of mass destruction, the automobile. All guns should be registered when purchased, and perhaps the owner should be required to have liability insurance as we mandate for the owners of cars.

The right to own a gun is guaranteed in the Constitution, and it shouldn’t be taken away, any more than our right to own an automobile. However, we should be held liable for our actions.

It will cost more money for taxes and insurance, like almost everything else. We have to accept the fact that there is no free lunch, and we must take responsibility for our actions and pay for what we purchase and enjoy.

Eugene Whitney, Chula Vista

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