4000 rounds is about a year's supply for my family. We rarely buy beef or chicken, and you have to practice to bring down deer. Lots of time at the target range. And then there are the most precious cartridges of all--the ones in the handguns of the less robust members of the family.

I've noticed that when people accuse gun owners of paranoia, it's usually the accuser who is insecure. No offense, but guns keep Americans safe--safe from attackers and (if the need ever arises) safe from a government that admitted to raping with acid at Abu Grahib.

As far as having to justify guns in the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, have you people noticed that these mass shootings occur in gun-free areas? The voters of the state of Virginia wanted to be able to defend themselves, so the state legislature passed a concealed handgun law, but then a non-governmental organization (the university) took that right away from its students. Again, refer to the Appalachia Law School incident of 2002. Students with weapons stopped a shooter. There was an incident in Pearl, Mississippi, too, where a school administrator stopped further killing because he had a gun in his car. I think that was 1997 or 98.

A really sad trace of government involvement in the Virginia Tech incident is the way in which the students apparently knelt down and accepted their deaths. Schools drill for this kind of thing constantly now, and the students are taught to not cause problems. This is the result.