I'm all for calm behavior to avoid violence. Since I don't even own a handgun, I would also join you, and indeed have also joined you, in not bearing arms. I respect your choice, and not just because I happen to have made the same choice. If I had a handgun, and if I had practiced enough with it, I would make a different choice.

Writing about the Appalachian Trail got me to thinking about the case of Randall Lee Smith. In May, 1981, he killed Susan Ramsey and Robert Mountford, Jr. Ms. Ramsey and Mr. Mountford had been hiking the Appalachian trail in Southwest Virginia. Smith was caught, pled guilty, and was imprisoned. Last May, he tried to kill Sean Farmer and Scott Johnston along the same section of the trail. They were badly hurt but, blessedly, both men survived.

I was especially interested in the case since Scott Johnston is an acquaintance of my wife's family, and since my older daughter, my father-in-law, and I had hiked that same section of trail a few years back.

Let's consider what could be done to prevent crimes such as Smith's. One could regulate guns. Would Smith, who refused to obey the law against murder, have been willing to obey gun regulations?

Even if guns had been completely outlawed, and even if the prohibition were actually effective (unlike, say, the prohibition against marijuana), would that have stopped him from killing? That is doubtful. He stabbed Ms. Ramsey to death.

Could anything have been done to prevent the second set of attacks? Since he was a convicted felon, he was not allowed to have a gun. He had one anyway.   

Could nothing have prevented the second set of attacks? This man had been convicted of two murders. How was able to be back on the Appalachian Trail? Had he escaped from prison? No, he was LET out of prison in '96. By the time of the second set of attacks, he wasn't even on probation. Do you see a problem there? I do, and it is not a lack of gun regulations.

For more information, see http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/161124 and http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/161156 .

Kent