Licensing of Handguns

* Re “Handgun License Plan Clears Senate Panel,” June 28: The proposed law is of course an unconstitutional infringement on the right to keep and bear arms. But that hasn’t previously stopped the leftists who control California’s government. This law is designed purely to harass law-abiding gun owners and put legal firearms dealers out of business.

I own 10 handguns, two rifles and a shotgun. Yet to purchase another weapon, I would have to submit to the onerous requirements of this bill. What purpose can be served by requiring someone who already owns weapons--and has passed the attorney general’s background check many times--to be “licensed”?

The same is true of the 15-day waiting period. Suppose I go insane--and in a fit of passion decide to murder my neighbor. Will I go to the gun store and wait 15 days for the gun? Or will I go to my gun safe, open it and select one of my existing weapons? The 15-day waiting period and this new fantasy of licensing are useless as solutions to violence. They are admirably suited for their real purpose: to harass law-abiding gun owners.

It can be easily predicted that this legislation will have no effect on violent crime.

JAMES F. GLASS

Chatsworth

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Let me get this straight. New York is going to sue gun manufacturers, based on data compiled by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (June 27). The article states that “Similarly, through ATF traces of guns used in crimes, wholesalers know that certain retailers are selling guns into criminal channels.”

If the wholesalers can figure out who the bad retailers are, can’t the ATF? And if the ATF knows who the bad retailers are, is it too much to ask that they arrest and revoke their licenses? You know, enforce the existing laws?

MARK A. OVERTURF

Reseda