LETTERS: BILL TO PROTECT HANDGUN MAKERS NEEDS OPPOSITION

To the editor:

It is alarming that state Sen. Peter Kinder has sponsored a bill (Senate Bill 123) protecting firearms and ammunition manufacturers from suits by his own area citizens when the American Public Health Association has listed killing by handguns as a major public-health problem. Just as tobacco has caused $6 billion of health-care costs, handgun manufacturers should be subject to the same penalty when their products are used in killing and injuring people. Why Kinder should be interested in special protection for an industry which produces a public-health hazard should be questioned by his constituency.

Public-health professionals should be alerted and oppose Kinder's bill.

EUGENE P. SCHWARTZ

St. Louis