To the editor:

Last week two articles caught my eye. The Eudora News mentioned how New York City recently passed a law banning aluminum and alloy bats from high school baseball games. Other local governments are following suit, because balls fly off these metal bats faster than wooden ones, putting pitchers and fielders at significant risk for injury or even death.

Also, the Lawrence Journal-World reported that a young man was accidentally shot while he and a friend were discussing firearm techniques at home.

Firearms are the most dangerous consumer product in the common marketplace, except for automobiles. Yet, even though guns pose a serious threat to the health and safety of our youth, we live in a society that has a hands-off attitude toward regulating them. Furthermore, unlike other manufacturers of potentially hazardous products, the gun industry is well insulated from lawsuits, thanks to a powerful lobby in Washington.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission attributes at least eight fatal baseball injuries to nonwood bats from 1991 to 2001. This federal agency that, for example, makes sure toy guns are safe, has no jurisdiction over real firearms. In any event, this alarming statistic about metal bats pales in comparison to the fact that, in America, guns kill eight children every day!

If we pass laws to protect our kids from metal baseball bats, why do we treat guns as if they were inherently benign?

Neil Brown,

Lawrence