I have been out of uniform for a very long time.

Back in the day, I was more than competent with a FN-C1 service rifle, actually rather good with a Browning 9-mm pistol, and freakin' dangerous -- to myself, mostly -- with a 9-mm Sterling submachine-gun. However, if someone handed me an FN or a Browning today, I would require a long stretch of range time before I would consider myself safe to carry that weapon among people not wearing body armour and covered by the Supplementary Death Benefit.

I believe I am far more the rule than the exception.

To expect retired military and law-enforcement personnel to accept the responsibility of carrying weapons in middle and old age is to impose on them a burden of care that I, for one, would not be willing to bear. If properly implemented, it would mean requiring these folks to train and submit to fitness testing -- do you want your purblind uncle toting a gun? -- long after they have been released from active service.

I wish people would get it through their heads that bearing arms is not glamorous or amusing, but an onerous duty that one should be grateful to avoid.