I am a gun owner. Some decades ago I was also a member of the NRA, mainly to receive a copy of their magazine, "The National Rifleman." I was introduce to the "shooting sports" by a guitar student of mine, and he took me to the Seattle Police Athletic Club's firing range (although he wasn't a policeman, he had a membership) for some formal target shooting, and we would also go out to a gravel pit (good backstop) and "plink" (shoot at soft drink cans filled with water and other improvised targets).

On other threads, I have told how my friend always carried a Colt .45 automatic, and how on one occasion he almost killed a good mutual friend of ours when he didn't recognize him in the dark. And how he got arrested and his gun confiscated for 90 days when he sought to "assist" the police in making an arrest by drawing his gun and threatening the "fugitives." He was arrested and sharply reprimanded by a judge because the minor offense the "fugitives" were guilty of did not justify the use of deadly force in apprehending them.

A number of incidents like this, plus some of the more hard-charging articles in "The National Rifleman" convinced me that I was treading in dangerous territory literally, and that I was also dealing with a bit of a lunatic fringe. My gun-toting friend move out of town, and I let my membership in the NRA lapse.

I have a Smith and Wesson Model 41 .22 caliber target pistol (CLICKY (looks more like it should shoot laser beams), and a small, .380 caliber Walther PPK (CLICKY #2), same gun but heavier caliber than the one various James Bonds have used in the movies.

These guns are safely locked away and haven't been used for decades. I feel no need for going armed. Granted, I could encounter a situation such as the one in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater where I wish I had the Walther.

Say I was in that theater situation. I could stop the shooter with one or two shots (the magazine holds six rounds and I'm a damned good shot!). I would have no need for a thirty round magazine. Nor would I be packing an AK-47 around with me.

I refuse to accept the mentality that states that I should go armed all the time.

The Second Amendment, which was written at a time when firearms were single-shot muzzle loading flintlocks, and individuals often depended on hunting to feed themselves and their families, is seriously outdated.

And the idea that a bunch of wild-eyed, self-appointed "militiamen" could stand up for more than ten minutes before a modern, well-equipped and trained army should someone try a totalitarian take-over of the country is simply delusional.

Don Firth