Gun Training

In response to your editorial “Gun Safety Still the Target” (March 19), you urge mandatory safety training for anyone buying a firearm.

It is repugnant to say that a person must “go to school” in order to qualify to exercise his constitutional right to arms. How would you like it if newspaper editors were subjected to a requirement of unblemished truthful reputation, or reporters required to meet a political test, in order to write and publish?

True, training is needed, but it should be voluntary, not mandatory. Sadly, when Sen. Bill Richardson had a bill before the Legislature to permit--not require--high schools to provide firearms safety training, it was the teacher unions and the anti-gun zealots of Handgun Control Inc. who managed to kill it.

FIELDING GREAVES

San Rafael