To the Editor:

“Guns in Tiny Hands: In a Week, Four Toddlers Shoot Themselves” (front page, May 6) highlights the tragic folly of keeping a firearm for self-protection.

Children are not the only victims. Statistics consistently show that the probability of shooting a friend or a relative far exceeds the probability of shooting an intruder or an assailant.

Moreover, the majority of firearm-related deaths in this country are suicides; a person who attempts suicide with (for instance) an overdose of sleeping pills is often rescued, while a person who attempts suicide with a gun is nearly always successful.

In today’s climate, it is unlikely that a public-policy initiative will emerge to address these tragedies. The best strategy that a person can adopt to avoid a gun-related disaster is not to own a gun.