One life saved is worth the effort

Do these modest exercises really matter much in the big picture since there are an estimated 400 million revolvers, shotguns, rifles and automatic weapons already in the hands of U.S. residents, hundreds of thousands of them right here on the Peninsula?

Do the buybacks, by definition, actually help the criminals and hurt the law-abiding among us?

One reader, in particular, took polite exception to the skepticism that was fairly obvious in the short essay. Al Comolli, a member of Citizens for a San Mateo County Gun Buyback, said his group has partnered with local law enforcement agencies to sponsor the last five county gun buybacks.

In an email, he noted that, in spite of “the infinitesimally small fraction of the hundreds of millions of weapons in the nation,” it’s important to point out that “many of the citizens who participate in these buybacks have family members who suffer with mental illness.”

He added, “the majority of deaths attributable to gun violence are by suicide.” He went on: “As a matter of fact, San Mateo County, during a recent five-year period, almost 73% of gun-related deaths were by suicide.”

He concluded by stating, “if only one life can be saved as a result of a buyback event, the effort if well worth it.

He makes a good point.

SKIN SCENE LOSES TWO MORE: It has become almost a weekly lament. As rampant development continues to alter the county’s landscape, old, familiar haunts are biting the dust, one way or another. What some call “progress” seems to be inevitable.

That’s even true for hoary venues of questionable, though legitimate, repute. Two more such dicey outfits are gone, having closed their naughty doors not all that long ago.

The Hanky Panky, a strip club and lap dance emporium in unincorporated Redwood City, which had been a fixture in that neck of the South County woods for decades, quietly shut down some weeks ago; Jaybird Adult Books in San Mateo (not exactly your traditional library by any means) was next.

The latter enterprise had been residing in its locale just east of the Caltrain rail line and ladling out latex novelties and other so-called “marital aids,” among other adult amenities, for nearly a full half-century.

These two join flesh-friendly outfits like the ill-fated Easy Street in San Mateo and the Cricket in Burlingame that were profiting on the booming skin scene during the go-for-it late 1960s. They got the boot from city fathers (and mothers) who frowned on such entertainment as being well beyond the tolerance of innocent suburbia.

Somehow, we all managed to survive.

A PROMOTIONAL CHALLENGE: Here’s a tip of the soiled fedora to Burlingame’s Russ Stanley, vice president in charge of ticket sales for the San Francisco Giants. He’s been busy making lemonade out of lemons lately.

Without a clear-cut star to showcase or a big-time winner in the Major League Baseball standings, Stanley has been tasked with marketing a mediocre, lackluster product more than 80 times in 2022.

That said, the Giants are still finding creative ways to draw an average of just over 30,000 souls to their ballpark at China Basin. Things could be a lot worse. Stanley could be laboring for the severely challenged Oakland Athletics.

That woeful, flailing franchise is attracting fewer than 9,000 customers per game (the lowest figure in MLB) at its deteriorating facility.

WHERE ARE MULDER AND SCULLY?: It’s been a strange week. Did anyone see actual rain on Aug. 1 as a distinct possibility as the summer commenced? Certainly not.

When unexpected wet stuff, so out of place at this time of year, began dripping from the sky during another drought Monday, there was a persistent feeling that nothing was as it seems.

Maybe it’s the X-Files on the Peninsula. Mulder and Scully, come on down.

You can contact John Horgan by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com.