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Show quires that all firearms and ammunition be registered with local and state authorities. auth-orities. The crime took place In New York City, which has perhaps the most stringent gun laws In the country. New York not only requires registration and permits for handguns, but also requires the licensing of firearms owners. These restrictive gun laws did not stop Mr. Lennon's murder. Additional gun laws would not have stopped it, either. -The act, for whatever reason It was committed, was premiditated. Once he is bent upon such a crime, a person cannot be thwarted thwart-ed by an existing gun law, nor by the passage of any additional legislation, Murder Mur-der is already against the law. There will be those who call for more 'gun control' laws. Such laws, only restrict re-strict the law abiding citizen's citi-zen's use of firearms and will not affect the criminal or reduce crime. Such laws j merely open the door for i civil rights violations which have occurred many times ' under the Federal Gun Con- trol Act of 1968. These violations have already resulted re-sulted in 63 United States ' Senators calling for reform of that gun law. To stop crime, laws must be directed at the violent criminal. The NRA has i long been in favor of prompt ! and adequate punishment for anyone convicted of a crime of violence. Take the criminal off the streets. Force the criminal justice system to be as severe as necessary to compel the criminal cri-minal to realize that he will suffer the consequences of his actions. This is the way to stop such deplorable tragedies. tra-gedies. Sincerely, HARLON B. CARTER Executive Vice Pres. National Rifle Ass'n. LETTERS Dear Editor: While contemplating the sad death of musician John Lennon, Americans should realize that no 'gun control' law, no amount of restrictive restric-tive firearms legislation, could have prevented this tragic act. Gun laws simply cannot stop someone who is Intent upon committing murder. The suspect charged with Mr. Lennon's murder purchased pur-chased the murder weapon in Hawaii, a state which re- |