I s'pose you're right, Nan- disappointing as it may be! Dang nabbit, anyway!

I have owned guns all my life. I was taught how to shoot when I was about 7 or 8. It is rare I ever need to use one. Most of the time, I use a pellet rifle to take crows out of the garden who did not get the hint when I would peg them with the old bb gun (bb gun wont kill them, but give them something to remember, pellet gun makes them forget everything). Or the occasional squirrel who just won't take no for an answer when it comes to living in my attic.

My pistol is for home defense, the only time I carry it, is if I have to go somewhere with something very valuable which is not very often.

Most people who carry guns are not psychotic gun nuts. We are just not scared or uncomfortable around them. In fact, I would be a bit more fearful of pepper spray than a .357. I have seen more spray cans blow up by themselves than guns fire all alone. I can't imagine what would happen if one of those things went off in the car while a person was driving it.

Everyone here tells great stories and gives perfect reasons to back-up gun ownership. I do understand Mapiva's reaction, but the truth is- if one's only first-hand knowledge of guns is big-city thuggery, school violence and urban trouble-making... well, that experience is as remote to folks from smaller areas, as needing a shotgun to fend-off wayward wolves and rabid skunks is to city-slickers. Afterall, no one would ever live in NYC without subway tokens and and take-out menus... no one at the seashore would live without a pail, a bucket and a dip-net... and no one from farm-country or in the wildlerness would ever live without some level of fire-power. Failing to do any of the above would be simply ridiculous.

Last friday night I was awaked at 3:30 in the morning to the sound of three gun shots. Three boys were shot by gang members on MY street! about 5 houses down from me! Holy cow! This is not a bad neighborhood the boys who were shot live one street over the ones who did the shooting followed them home. Now they are on the loose. The police don't have them yet so I may have a couple of murders running around in my neighborhood. Ask me right now if I think I need a gun.

Mapiva, very respectfully- you as a dweller in a huge city with terrible crime problems that just seem to always be a bit beyond properly controlling, have an understandable issue with weapons.

But not everyone lives in a huge urban area with such crime and social conflict.

I respect your ideas on this and even understand them- afterall, I am able to empathize and see well beyond my own personal experience. But my life experience in the locales where I have chosen to live is very different than yours. My particular thinking is very opposite, from yours. However, regardless of our opposie views, the real main difference is- I don't wish to have my choice on the matter dictate yours- or anyone else's. I can see how you might wish for gun control in your city- but in all of America?

I stand by my earlier claim that anyone who lives in many rural areas- especially Alaska- is foolishly wrong to do so without a gun. There's a world of difference between NYC and the remote bush where wildlife abounds- I certainly realize and respect that difference. And I love & celebrate both places. But one would be as goofy to walk the Alaskan willderness or camp at a lakeside cabin, without a gun- as they would be to jog thru Central Park at midnight, topless, wearing diamond rings and pearl necklaces. Ain't much a lipstick tube of pepper-spray can do when on a hiking trail and an 800 lb. grizzly decides its his walk-way and that YOU must yield to his right-away.

Sensible practicality is called for- no matter where one finds himself- city or country.