To the editor: As a former paramedic and firefighter, I applaud the California Senate for passing AB 28. As survivors, households, communities and taxpayers, all of us pay the big prices related to gun violence, whether or not we personal a firearm or not. The gun business continues to reap historic income whereas its merchandise gas a pricey public well being epidemic. As a substitute of letting firearm-related income solely profit the gun business, this invoice would impose a modest 11% excise tax on gun sellers and producers to fund applications remediating and mitigating the harms firearms too usually trigger in our communities.
Having labored on the frontlines of this epidemic, I do know what it appears like when bullets ravage a physique and the ache survivors really feel within the wake of this violence. I by no means will have the ability to unsee this stuff, however I can see Gov. Newsom signing this invoice and in doing so, saving lives.
Michelle Petersen, Alamo
..
To the editor: Lately, the California Legislature handed a measure to tax firearms and ammunition. It will likely be bitterly opposed and do little to cut back gun violence.
Requiring gun house owners to insure their weapons in opposition to accidents to others attributable to their use could be more practical. The gun proprietor would face a big effective if his uninsured weapon prompted harm to a different. There may be a modest effective for the open carrying of an uninsured firearm. This proposal would trigger house owners to safe their weapons extra assuredly, or contemplate significantly insuring their weapons, and it might present a fund to partially compensate these injured by firearms. The insurance coverage corporations would salivate to broaden with this new space of enterprise.
John Neill, San Diego
..
To the editor: As a UC Davis pupil and Glendale native, I’m thrilled that Meeting Invoice 28 handed within the state Senate. This summer season, I noticed the distinctive work that violence intervention applications do firsthand once I labored with City Peace Institute to highlight their work to highschool pupil activists. From de-escalation on metropolis streets to rehabilitative applications like yoga, which our college students beloved making an attempt, these applications that might obtain funding from AB 28 make our metropolis safer and save lives.
It’s been so rewarding volunteering with different college students to cross this invoice, together with spending hours in a committee listening to to testify in assist final April. I can’t await Gov. Newsom to signal it in order that no extra college students have to just accept gun violence as a every day truth of life.
Roan Thibault, Montrose
