On July 13, a letter entitled, "Gun Registration Not All Bad" appeared in this section, which favored a program requiring all firearms to be registered. Although this idea is a logical approach to solving gun violence, the results would not provide any significant effect and would therefore be a tremendous waste of taxpayer money.

As a seventeen-year-old teenager that has experienced several gun threats at my high school, let me be the first to say a solution to this problem must be found. But mere gun registration is not the answer because it is limited to commercial stores and is irrelevant to criminals. If a person wishes to purchase a firearm to commit an act of violence, he will look for a setting where he can make a secretive transaction, not a public commercial store. Furthermore, a criminal will not shrug off his plans for murder simply because his gun is registered. It is ridiculous to think a registration program will keep dangerous weapons out of bad hands.

It scares me to believe that people are devising ignorant solutions, such as gun registration programs, to solve the serious problem of gun violence. The most important factor is overlooked when guns are the primary focus, the criminal behind the crime itself. If we as citizens wish to suppress gun violence, we need to focus our attention on the criminals, not the weapons. That is, unless, guns pull their own triggers.

Chris Bayne,

Woodbridge