The District's Gun Ban

Regarding the March 18 front-page article "Lawyer Who Wiped Out D.C. Ban Says It's About Liberties, Not Guns," concerning Florida millionaire Robert A. Levy, a onetime Washington resident:

If this doesn't fire up gun control advocates such as myself, I don't know what will. Mr. Levy's actions are so hypocritical. If he wants everybody to bear arms in the District, why doesn't he just move back up here, buy a gun and put it on his bedside table?

He is also way behind on what's happening in society regarding guns. Even toy guns are being banned in homes and on playgrounds by mothers who don't want their children to have anything to do with guns.

PAGE PALMER

Washington

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A couple of years ago, Robert Levy -- a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and an attorney for Shelly Parker, a plaintiff in the lawsuit that challenged the District's ban on handguns -- gave a talk in Orange County, Calif., sponsored by the Federalist Society. In his remarks, he previewed the case that led to the overturning of the D.C. gun ban.

I thought he made a good point with the following example, which I am paraphrasing. He asked: If there were a constitutional amendment that read, "A well-stocked library, being necessary to the literacy of our people, the right of the people to keep books, shall not be infringed," would anyone argue that only libraries have a constitutional right to own books?

Kudos to Mr. Levy and his colleagues for a job well done.

HIRBOD RASHIDI

Los Angeles