My letter to The Times today

How Many Deaths Are Enough, Bob Herbert's column today, covers most aspects of the death-ridden US gun culture. But one aspect is left unsaid--your coverage of Mexico's drug wars. I think it's pretty clear, from the statistics Mr. Herbert cites, that the US death toll is much, much higher than Mexico's. And Mexico's death toll is more or less confined to a particular subculture, which does not usually include college students or innocent bystanders, and to particular areas of the country. Yet Mexico's body count is a frequent feature in your pages and in the rest of the press, while it takes a massacre (which can happen and has happened anywhere in the country) to secure coverage for gun deaths in the US. Maybe if the US passes a few laws, it can get its gun-death statistics down to where Mexico's are.