Mental health must be focus
2/14/2013I hope the Obama Administration and the National Rifle Association can agree that the screening process for people who want to own guns but have serious mental-health issues needs to be improved (“Firearms in America: 2 key players, 1 divisive issue,” Feb. 10).
Keeping guns away from people who may use them to harm themselves or someone else makes sense. Federal, state, and local governments need to increase funding to mental-health agencies.
We need to encourage people with mental-health issues to seek professional help. And we need to come up with a system that protects the privacy of individuals, yet allows professionals to share information about seriously ill, potentially dangerous people.
School systems, mental-health agencies, and law enforcement agencies need to work together. The safety of our schools, places of worship, workplaces, and neighborhoods are at stake.
GEORGE WEIDNER
Barrows Street
Licensing would keep tabs on guns
Congress should establish a uniform gun owner’s license. This program would require all guns to be registered, including gun type, serial number, date of purchase, seller’s name and address, and owner’s address.
The license would require a gun to be kept in a secure location for use only for recreation and personal protection.
The license would have to be renewed annually to ensure that the gun has not been lost or stolen. A gun that is lost, stolen, or no longer under the control of the registered owner would have to be reported to authorities.
ARTHUR SCHUSTER
Heatherwood Drive
Hunting rifle also protects home
A hunter does not need more then 10 rounds of ammunition to harvest a deer or other game, but hunters don’t leave their rifles in the field or take them to a storage facility afterward (“NRA’s control of politicians wrong,” Readers’ Forum, Jan. 31). They take them home where they serve a second purpose: to protect the hunter and his family from intruders who could take their lives.
Some home invasions are perpetrated by multiple assailants. Two or three intruders could have 20 to 30 rounds, and that is if they were law-abiding criminals with 10-round magazines.
DICK ZEITER
Calyx Lane
Vets in schools would be wise
The Jan. 30 Readers’ Forum letter “Armed staff no match for shooter” has merit. Military veterans placed in schools to provide safety would get my vote.
Veterans know gun safety and would have no problem handling dangerous situations.
These veterans likely would have the respect of students, and would be told of situations that require their attention.
DON MOONEY
Erie, Mich.