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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 17, 1993                   TAG: 9301180358
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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GUN LIMIT WILL TRIGGER CRIME WAVE

IN RESPONSE to the firearm-, NRA-, Virginia-bashing editorial published Dec. 31 in the Roanoke Times & World-News:

I think it should be made clear that, unlike the editorial staff of this newspaper, I am proud to be a Virginian. I am proud that the citizens of this state and its lawmakers refuse to cower to the anti-gun special interest or to allow themselves to be hoodwinked into believing that the answer to crime in America is to rid society of firearms, or their availability through legal means.

Your theory of restricting legal firearm sales as a means of deterring gunrunning is misguided much in the same way as the person who might say, since too many children are being injured from falling out of trees, let's cut down all the trees.

To restrict legal firearm sales would only serve to create more crime. Robberies of gun shops, hunting-supply and sporting-good stores and residences would naturally increase rapidly as gunrunners sought out other means to obtain weapons. DANNY CHITTUM MONETA

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