
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991                   TAG: 9104090474
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

A PLAN FOR GETTING TEEN-AGERS' GUNS

THERE ARE cries of dismay from all over the nation regarding juvenile murder in the black ghettoes of our big cities. With a concentrated effort and determination, this situation could be cleared up in a month.

First, put handcuffs on the soft-headed, and encourage the hard-headed to pass a national law forbidding the sale of concealable, death-dealing weapons to anyone unless a police permit accompanies the request.

Then contact a rock band that is in high favor with black youth and arrange for a concert in a huge auditorium with lots of promotion and cheap tickets. We fill the auditorium with black juveniles.

At the end of the concert, it is announced from the stage that police are at every exit to conduct searches. If weapons are found on a person, that person will be locked up and prosecuted. When the last person has left the auditorium, a careful search should be made of the building, and the three bushel baskets full of deadly weapons should be carried to the nearest steel mill and melted down.

Large rewards should be offered for tips to the whereabouts of gang arsenals. Rewards should be offered for tips as to the owners of rapid-shot shoulder weapons, which are obviously good for nothing but to kill someone.

With this type of dedicated and persistent approach, your teen-ager death rate should plummet to zero in a month.

A teen-ager carrying a lethal weapon has no legal rights. GORDON T. HILL ROANOKE

by CNB