No, Alan Barben, guns do not increase survival (March 8). Between 1993 and 2002, 636 sworn officers were feloniously slain in the United States, mostly by handguns. That's almost one officer a week. We can presume that those slain officers were far better trained than a person with a concealed weapon permit, yet they were slain.

We should dread the coming day when a concealed weapon holder is wounded or killed in a confrontation with an individual engaged in a criminal act. Too many weapon aficionados appear to feel they will always prevail. A concealed weapon permit does not give a person invincibility, nor does it place him on the side of the angels.

And yes, I am familiar with Dr. John Lott's book "More Guns, Less Crime" and with the Kleck and Gertz study, which purports to demonstrate that 2,000,000 people each year in the country use a weapon to defend themselves. Both of those works have been roundly discredited by criminologists and statisticians who carefully reviewed the methodology and conclusions.

Raymond Hollstein

Salt Lake City