Gun Ban

* Re “L.A. Bans Manufacture and Sale of Cheap Handguns,” Sept. 5:

As an observation, it seems to me that one person’s Saturday night special is another person’s affordable protection. A more succinct way of putting it is, middle-income folks in Woodland Hills or Simi Valley will still be able to buy expensive guns to protect themselves and their homes, but low-income families in the inner city won’t. Sounds OK to me. But then I live in Simi Valley.

FRED ROMERO

Simi Valley

* The Times’ Sept. 6 editorial makes the ludicrous statement that because of the low cost of Saturday night specials a shooter would have no compunction against throwing the gun away. Tell me: If you had just committed a drive-by shooting with a stolen $500 gun while riding in a stolen $12,000 car, would you have any compunction against throwing either the car or gun away? I thought not.

JERRY W. PARSONS

Carson

* The Pasadena ammunition sales registration ordinance is not a failure because it is limited in geographical scope (Sept. 6). Neither was it the first such law of its kind. The federal Gun Control Act of 1968 contained a similar provision. Like the Pasadena law, all it produced was a useless mountain of paper, and it was repealed a few years later.

RICHARD de la SOTA

Redondo Beach