To the editor:

This is in response to Mike Cuenca’s Nov. 21 letter to the editor.

In your letter you stated some facts about gun and knife crimes that are somewhat disingenuous. You can’t use part of one study’s numbers on a weapon and another study’s number on a different weapon and compare the use of those weapons correctly. So let me help you out here. This is what the Justice Department numbers are.

“Weapons and violent crime

Between 1993 and 2001, about 26 percent (or an annual average of 2.3 million) of the estimated 8.9 million violent crimes in the United States were committed by offenders armed with guns, knives, or objects used as weapons. Firearm violence accounted for 10 percent of all violent crimes; about 6 percent were committed with a knife or other sharp object such as scissors, ice pick, or broken bottle; 4 percent with blunt objects such as a brick, bat, or bottle; and 5 percent were committed with unspecified/’other’ objects used as weapons.”

Mr. Cuenca, you may believe that firearms are the reason for violent crime in this country. I must respectfully disagree. I have yet to see any weapon of any kind get up off a table and go out and harm someone.

If anyone wants to look at the stats and form their own opinion, they can go to the Justice Department Web page (www.ojp.usdoj.gov).

M. Lindeman,

Lawrence