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 Not really a letter to us but a letter a well-informed, well-educated, and articulate pro-gun voice wrote to Dr. Laura... yeah, you know the one. His work can be found HERE. Dear Dr. Laura, Your advice is going to get someone killed. Guns and kids can and do coexist safely in the same house. Your opinion that a caller should make her husband get rid of his gun because they have a child is not founded on expertise and sound moral judgment, but rather on bias and ignorance. "Promise him great sex," you laughed, "but the gun is gone." I'm sorry–who would she be promising, her husband, or an intruder? Recall that Richard Speck, armed with but a knife, managed to rape and kill eight student nurses over the course of several hours. All they could do was submit, plead and die. Your self-proclaimed martial arts skills notwithstanding, that is the reality and the certain outcome in a violent physical confrontation between 99.9 % of all men and 99.9% of all women. The only thing which can reverse the balance of power in such situations is a gun. And your self-proclaimed devoutness to the Jewish faith notwithstanding, you must be aware that God's Commandment was "Thou shalt not murder," and that the Torah provides rules for when it is appropriate to use lethal force against a home intruder. Just out of curiosity, would you have advised Holocaust-era European Jews not to have guns and children under the same roof? "When kids are involved," you maintained "err on the side of caution." Good advice, providing one knows where that side is. For as peer-reviewed and methodologically sound studies out of Florida State University and the University of Chicago have amply demonstrated, guns save lives. More guns in private hands can be verifiably linked to lower violent crime rates and real drops in the number of children murdered. Wouldn't you agree that "the side of caution" is the one with the lowest innocent victim body count? Especially since it is a statistical certainty that many times more members of your audience will successfully use a gun for defense than will be felled by gun-related accidents, suicides and criminal acts combined? And as far as kids and guns go, children die from common hazards which can be found in your listeners' homes far more than they do by gun accidents. Thanks in large part to age-appropriate safety training, such accidental deaths are at a 70-year low despite an exponential increase in guns during that same period. As demonstrated last April on ABC World News Tonight, it is the kids for whom guns are a mystery who are at greatest risk for tragedy. By the time I was your kid's age, I was well-versed in safe, proper and responsible firearms use. This is, in fact, the norm for families which engage in shooting activities. You have made famous the slogan "I am my kid's mom." Well, Dr. Laura, in addition to being my kids' dad, I am their protector. I, and many like me, are quite capable of using appropriate judgment and methods to ensure that our families are protected from hazards originating both within and outside of our homes. As for the risks I face having a gun versus the risks you face not having one, I love my kids too much not to go with the best odds I can arrange. Now go take on the day. David Codrea 
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