Why does anyone need more than one gun a month?

In response to Bob Hoffmann's Sept. 21 letter ("People, Not Guns, Create the Problems in Our Society"): Why do law-abiding citizens need to purchase more than one handgun a month?

That's what the current bill, One Handgun a Month, is trying to get through. Do law-abiding citizens need more than the 12 guns they would be able to buy in a year?

The problem is the chain of ownership -- unlimited handguns can be bought by a person who makes it through the gun registry. The handguns are often then sold to whomever, and that's the problem. Why would any rational thinking person have a problem with the One Handgun a Month bill?

And regarding Mr. Hoffmann's claim that it's physically impossible for the gun to fire itself, yes, sir, that's true. It also would have been physically impossible for thugs to have overpowered the five tall, athletic, strong Duquesne University basketball players with anything but a gun (I remember reading that one of the suspects is 5-foot-4).

It never ceases to amaze me how scared the National Rifle Association types are of any kind of limits to their beloved guns. People do the shooting, yes, but guns create much more destruction than a punch.

TERRI BARR SCHRECENGOST
Beaver

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Watching, learning

I was very heartened to see the Sept. 3 Forum commentary by Gary J. Niels, head of Winchester Thurston School, about character education and its importance for competent learners and successful schools ("Why Education 'Reform' Isn't Working").

When we cultivate a community of learners, we need to be mindful of respect for diverse learning styles, children who learn at different rates and who bring varied temperaments and behaviors to the classroom. It is only through "living" an accepted set of character traits -- honesty, respect, justice, love, courage, hope and loyalty -- that any group can get along and succeed: children, families, political leaders, humanity. (Note: The seven traits listed come from the Heartwood Ethics Curriculum, founded right here in Pittsburgh.)

I would like to add another dimension to the article. We must all remember that from the moment of birth children learn about character from those around them. An infant who is held lovingly and whose need for food is met respectfully will learn to behave in the same way. And so it is with children of all ages.

Children are watching us all the time. Parents need to model ethical behavior, and teachers can't just teach character education for one period a day -- they need to demonstrate it in the way they interact with children and one another all the time.

LINDA EHRLICH
North Side

The writer is president-elect of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children.

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Clear positions

I am responding to the Sept. 17 letter by Robert D. Arbuckle ("His Stands Stink"), in which he makes a huge leap of logic in criticizing columnist Jack Kelly's reasoning why the current senator continues to be a compelling choice, rather than a "waffling" Robert Casey Jr.

The hyperbole by the letter writer goes beyond sheer nonsense and wanders into the realm of insanity. I for one cannot comprehend how he can play connect the dots, using the names Jack Kelly, Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush, and get to Adolf Hitler, the most genocidal, socialist, gun-confiscating, perverse and evil piece of filth ever produced in human history.

Jack Kelly basically said Sen. Rick Santorum speaks his mind and stands for things, unlike Mr. Casey, who cannot seem to recognize that if he feels something is wrong, like the state pay raises, then he should speak out when he must make a choice (as in when he was signing his name to those pay-raise checks) rather than after the public compels him to do so.

Sen. Santorum's public stands on illegal immigration issues alone discredit any attempt to call him a "clone" of the president, and his integrity (as well as his hard-won influence in Washington) allows him to vote his conscience. I can only wonder how Mr. Casey would vote if he had the opportunity to voice his opinion on abortion, whether through legislation or confirming all-important judicial nominations. Would he follow his mind, his heart or the pile of dollars provided him by the Democratic National Committee?

On that issue, and countless more, I have no doubt about how Sen. Santorum would cast his vote.

JOE BABINSACK
Brighton Heights

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Better use for talents

Where does Rick Santorum belong? I do not think that Mr. Santorum belongs in the Senate; I believe he belongs in housing or education.

Anyone who can put eight people into a three-bedroom house has the answers. And anyone who can live in one state and have another state pay for his children's education has the answers.

JOE ESCHER
West End

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Security priority

In his Sept. 10 Forum piece, "The U.S. Doesn't Seem So Friendly Anymore," Benjamin Schulz attacks the wrong American value, open-mindedness, in his criticism of our nation's policies regarding foreign visas.

He makes it sound ridiculous that he should have to inform the government of where he lives and works. The commentary claims that we are not justified in "making friendly visitors ... feel as though [they] are criminals."

First, criminals are thrown in jail and put on trial; our country is performing background checks on visa applicants to prevent the immigration of individuals with the wrong intentions. Second, these checks are carried out precisely to find who truly is a friendly visitor and who intends to cause harm.

Mr. Schulz makes the claim that terrorists have been able to target the open-mindedness of America, and he does so by describing the methods of fingerprinting and picture-taking used on him upon arrival. What many people fail to realize is that an open mind doesn't mean an open door into America.

Our country will not let known terrorists into the country, in the same way that you wouldn't hire a felon as a baby sitter. Open-mindedness is defined as "willing to consider or receive new ideas; unprejudiced." Officials in immigration can still be open-minded and accepting while retaining security through routine checks and record keeping. This isn't a matter of an open or closed mind, but rather of keeping our citizens secure.

BRENNA THORPE
Franklin Park

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Pump politics

The politics of gasoline: Elections are coming up and gas prices are going down. What a coincidence.

TOM BYRNES
Herminie

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Goodbye, tradition

Like the steel mills, Pittsburgh has lost another icon, the partnership for 51 years of Pirates baseball on KDKA Radio ("Pirates, KDKA End Long Marriage," Sept. 13).

Almost like losing a friend, this has also occurred in Detroit with the Tigers dropping WJR and in St. Louis with the Cardinals ending 55 years on the air with KMOX last year.

I understand the business move plus adding a postgame call-in show. No more tradition, which is going through the window "that Aunt Minnie didn't open"!

However, there is only one real number to improve, which is removing 14 years of losing baseball.

What would Harold Arlin, Rosey Rowswell and Bob Prince have to say except "Kiss 'em goodbye." Long live the pioneer voice of Pittsburgh!

JOHN R. MALICKY
Beechview

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We must insist on political diversity for the sake of our democracy

The Founding Fathers would be appalled by our floundering political election process. American democracy has morphed into a plutocracy that virtually eliminates the lower and middle classes from contending for state and national elected offices.

The moneyed elite use family fortunes and payola from special-interest groups to obtain and remain in power. We hoi polloi are courted only before elections with hyperbolized rhetoric and apocryphal promises and then quickly ignored as our enlightened "representatives" condescendingly pursue their own agendas.

Betraying the electorate may enrich our legislators and their cronies, but the motivating factor is an intellectual, wealth-bred arrogance that compels them to ignore our "plebean" demands because these "patricians" are omniscient. Kakistocracy beckons.

What can we do? We can become nihilists and attack the prime flaw in our election process -- the two-party syndrome. We need to elect candidates from third, fourth and fifth parties. Two points of view may enrich a relationship, but not a democracy. Let's augment the black and white of the current system with the polychromy of political diversity.

If you believe in the status quo, read no further; however, if you worry about global warming, your children's future, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, a worthless dollar, education, etc., ad nauseam, please consider becoming a firebrand.

We may be doomed, but at least we can go down voting.

ROBERT BILLER
Fombell