THE U.S. UNDER THE GUN

"Let Charlton Heston and his disciples each be allowed one single-shot, muzzle-loading flintlock musket."
SHEP SCHWARTZ
Deep River, Conn.

With Charlton Heston as its newly elected president [July 6], the National Rifle Association hopes to appeal to mainstream America. The plan may backfire. Even an actor who has portrayed Moses can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Though Heston's celebrity attracts media attention, the hateful sentiments he voices will more likely guarantee a continuing decline in N.R.A. membership. Heston's outspoken and controversial reflections may win right- wing applause, but his inflammatory rhetoric is repugnant to most Americans, including real sportsmen.
KATHLEEN GREGG
Pearl River, N.Y.

By and large, I wasn't unhappy with your piece on my election as president of the N.R.A., though it was laced with wry innuendo. I do, however, object to your coverage of my civil rights activities, which your writer reduced to a bare minimum. I played an important role in Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington as the leader and chief organizer of the scores of actors who attended. Some months earlier, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, at Dr. King's request, I persuaded the leaders of one of the technical unions (IATSE) to meet with him, after explaining that IATSE not only barred blacks from membership but also accepted only the sons of its members into the union. I merely knocked on the door. Dr. King persuaded or shamed IATSE into opening its membership, an incredible feat. To walk behind him was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and I'm proud to have been the first major actor to speak out on civil rights, against all advice in this town.
CHARLTON HESTON
Beverly Hills, Calif.

If 40% of American households have guns, it is a signal that people have given up on beating violent crime through conventional means. But that does not justify making guns more easily available. Owning a hunting rifle, securely storing it in separate pieces well away from children and using it only to shoot a yearly quota of deer is quite different from carrying a loaded 9-mm pistol in a shoulder holster for the drive to work. Parents who introduce children to guns at an early age may first want to take them down to the morgue and show them the bullet-riddled body of the latest young American killed by gunfire.
CLAES NORELL
London

I own four handguns, which I fire regularly at a range. I'm not an anti-gun wimp. In France there are stringent rules about gun ownership. France has urban crime, terrorist attacks and underprivileged minorities. Yet people here are not offing one another with guns at an alarming rate, and that's probably because it's not easy to get your hands on one. The N.R.A. and other mindless "patriotic" organizations that encourage the widespread proliferation of firearms are prime contributors to the U.S.'s shocking death toll. It would appear that Heston, who has run out of Saracens and Egyptians to slaughter, is leading the charge against his fellow Americans.
JACK ROBINSON
Paris

Americans have used the right to bear arms as an excuse to kill more and more of their own, never realizing that the proliferation of weapons they use to protect themselves provides a larger arsenal for criminals and unstable people. Thanks to politicians of all different stripes, and to Heston (who is so weak of mind that he makes Ronald Reagan look like Stephen Hawking), that will undoubtedly continue.
KEVIN KIMMIS
Fort McMurray, Canada

If an amendment to the Constitution is the root of the problem, then change it. After all, how many people drive an automobile by looking in the rear-view mirror instead of at what lies ahead? With all that America has taught the world, perhaps it can still learn too.
DOUG MCLEOD
Victoria, Canada

The problem of armed and dangerous children is typical for some rural areas of America. Parents and grandparents teach youngsters how to use a gun when they are just five or six years old. But the children don't get the feeling that it's wrong to use a gun or even aim one at a human being. They feel no guilt about what they are doing. This problem must be solved in childhood, when a youngster's whole attitude toward the value of human life is being formed.
JAN HENNING LUEERS
Stuhr, Germany

Why do Americans pretend to be so concerned about liberties and rights when all they really want is to own a lethal weapon?
MARTIN STEWARD
Epsom, England

MORE ABOUT CONCEALED WEAPONS

While your piece "Should You Carry a Gun?" [July 6] was generally favorable toward my new book, More Guns, Less Crime, it contained seriously misleading statements. Despite accusations by some critics, my study on the effect that carrying concealed weapons has on crime absolutely did not ignore "counties that had no reported murders or assaults for a given year." In contrast to the tiny samples in previous work by others, I used data on all the counties in the U.S. that were available when I did the study on the years from 1977 to 1994. It is likewise false that I did "not account for fluctuating factors like poverty levels and police techniques." Among the factors I included in the analysis were poverty, income, unemployment, arrest and conviction rates, the number of police officers and police expenditures per capita, as well as the impact that the prevention of less serious crimes has on more serious ones.
JOHN R. LOTT JR.
John M. Olin Law and Economics Fellow
University of Chicago
Chicago

The title of your story on concealed weapons asked, "Should You Carry a Gun?" My response is, "Do you want to?" Sensibly, most Americans don't, and they don't want the stranger in the next car to have one either. The next major legislative effort must be to stop the flow of guns from states with weak gun laws to states with strong ones. Florida, Georgia and Mississippi are the leading gun suppliers and the source of a large web of interstate gun runners.
CHARLES E. SCHUMER
U.S. Representative
Ninth District, New York
Washington

CHILLING PHOTOGRAPHS

The pictures you published of gun owners outraged and upset me so much I had to take a tranquilizer [July 6]. Especially bothersome was the photograph of Mike with his baby daughter in his right arm and a gun in his left hand, seemingly pointed at her! Undoubtedly she will grow up seeing this ghastly photo framed in a place of distinction in her family's home. And then there's Sarah Dobbins, shotgun owner at age 10! And we wonder what is happening to our children?
TINA BUCKLIN
Clinton Corners, N.Y.

A father appearing to hold a gun to his daughter's head, a young girl who got a shotgun from Santa Claus, and members of a ladies' circle comparing their recently purchased weapons? It makes my blood boil to see such negative, sickening impressions. I grew up admiring Heston. Now I place him in the same category as the man who 26 years ago killed my mother with an uncontrolled firearm in the family home in America.
LESLEY COOPER KIVISAARI
Bandhagen, Sweden

FAITH VS. GOOD WORKS

Your article on the Lutheran and Roman Catholic agreement on the doctrine of justification [July 6] really got me going. I have long been puzzled by the controversy of justification, the state of being right with God and whether it is based on good works or on faith alone. Whereas faith and good works are somewhat different, they are not ultimately philosophically distinguishable. Faith is a good work. God's works are faith in motion. Jesus enthroned those who did good works. The Good Samaritan and the widow who gave her last mite were most praiseworthy. No Protestant would admit to having "faith" and to being "saved" while having no desire to engage in good works. The grace of faith always entails good works. To proclaim "Salvation by faith alone!" is to talk about something that never existed and never will.
PETER J. DAWSON
Magnolia, N.J.

The idea of improving your chances of reaching heaven by buying indulgences sounds just as wrong as the concept of justification through faith, where there is no requirement for a penitent to demonstrate love of his fellow man. If we are released from the obligation to do anything to justify being accepted in the kingdom of heaven, then all the believers, even those who lie, cheat, rob and murder, have just as much right to expect justification as those who are blameless. The last word is God's promise to us that there will be punishment for misbehavior but love for those who keep his Commandments.
SELBY FRANK
Caledon, South Africa

Spiritism, a religion founded by Allan Kardec in France in the 1850s, settled this issue a long time ago. According to Spiritism, we're saved by God's grace. But if grace and faith alone were responsible for our salvation, what would be the point in being good, honest and hard-working? We have to deserve to be saved. How do we earn salvation? By working to become better people. So faith in God, therefore, will give us strength to improve ourselves by fighting our inner enemies--our pride, our selfishness, our prejudice, our lack of charity.
ANA RITA BARRETTO SANTIAGO
Sao Paulo

FREEDOM FOR AFRIKANERS

South African President Nelson Mandela needs to address the concerns of the Afrikaner farmers who claim that black militants are trying to drive them off their land [June 29]. Black nationalists fought for freedom, and that freedom includes independence for Afrikaners (though some were in favor of apartheid). Black people should be wise enough to forget their desire for revenge and let whites live in peace. President Mandela, do everything you can to stop these murderers who shame your nation.
ALEXANDRE BOUCHE
Troyes, France

INDEPENDENCE EVENTUALLY COMES

In your coverage of President Clinton's trip to China [June 29], you mentioned that the U.S. regards Tibet as an integral part of China. A similar situation prevails in Kosovo, which is regarded as part of Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, where ethnic Albanians are demanding full independence. Around the globe, scores of other people are subdued by force. But history shows that lands with a distinct culture, religion and political system will attain independence sooner or later, no matter the amount of bloodshed and suffering it takes.
JORGE A. SABATER
Caracas

NOT SO NORMAL IN INDONESIA

Some of your readers seem to think that life has gone back to normal in Indonesia [June 29]. It hasn't, though depending on where one lives, it might seem that way. People who are ethnic Chinese or resemble them have been living in fear of being attacked and can only stay home. If no one takes action, this will be the beginning of the end of Indonesia's glory. This country has multicultural and ethnic groups, like America. In the U.S. they are all considered Americans; here Indonesians are showing distrust of other ethnic groups.
NAME WITHHELD BY REQUEST
Jakarta