JUSTICE
Too little attention paid to black-on-black crime
I’m unaccustomed to agreeing with Mona Charen’s conservative columns, but she is right to call out the media on the race-based way they so often cover murders (“We should be outraged when any person is slain,” Opinion, July 10). Attractive young blond victims go directly to the front page, but black-on-black crime seems to get little notice — unless the victim or perp is a high-profile athlete.
I’m still waiting for Charen to point out a prime reason for so many murders, not to mention suicides and accidental shootings: our insane gun laws, encouraged by the pernicious influence of the National Rifle Association, that allow anyone with the money as much access to guns and ammunition as they want, coupled with laughable safeguards, and no way for authorities to keep track of who owns them.
And that Second Amendment clause about “a well-regulated militia”? That’s the single most ignored part of the Constitution.
FRED ROBERTS, DECATUR
COMMENTARY
Don’t use air tragedy to make political point
I read the AJC daily, and am always glad that the paper shows differing views on the editorials page.
On the July 10 Opinion page, though, your cartoon choice from the right — showing President Obama in the pilot seat of an aircraft, and a reference to on-the-job training — was in such poor taste. Even though it was picked up from a paper in California and reprinted here, I can’t imagine that someone in your office felt that was the right way to make a point about anything, much less health care.
When there are grieving families and terrified passengers still getting over a horrific plane crash, I would expect a newspaper as good as the AJC to show a little more common sense and decency.
JENNIFER PYE, ATLANTA
HIGHWAY SAFETY
Detectors unreliable as DUI deterrents
Drunken driving is a serious problem, but mandating alcohol detectors for all drivers isn’t the solution (“Alcohol detectors should be mandatory,” Metro, July 8). Our anti-drunken driving policy must focus on the main cause of this problem: Drivers who repeatedly flout the law and drive with high blood-alcohol levels. These drivers are responsible for more than 70 percent of drunken-driving fatalities every year.
A federal program is under way to put alcohol detectors in every car, but there are major problems with this technology. Even if manufactured to work correctly 99.7 percent of the time, the technology will still malfunction 3 million times per day. The technology will also target social drinkers who consume only a drink before driving.
Georgia requires hardcore drunken drivers to install ignition interlocks upon conviction. Instead of punishing responsible drivers, we can make our roadways safer by extending the time these interlocks are on vehicles, and following up with offenders to ensure compliance with the law.
SARAH LONGWELL, MANAGING DIRECTOR, AMERICAN BEVERAGE INSTITUTE
