[rrpjr]

Why must this be controversial. What is it about the idea of other people pursuing and exercising their rights that is so objectionable to the gun control crowd?

Could it be the high statistical incidence of responsible gun owners killing people?

I toss in my anecdotal accounts with all the rest. I find among gun owners a certain solidness and comfortable-in-their-own-skin quality totally at odds with the hackneyed “Dirty Harry” caricature mentioned in some places here. I’ve never met a serious gun person – or a person who enjoyed and took seriously his gun ownership – I haven’t liked and trusted. Moreover, I find among those who get their knickers in a twist over guns a general prickliness, and intolerance of opposing views – of any kind. No statistics to back me up -- just a lot of trips between South Carolina and Berkeley, the perfect polar opposits of attitude.

As for the low IQ nonsense, again, why must it be that those who take an opposing view are somehow deficient of judgment, incapable of thinking out the issue to the “only” correct conclusion. That, I believe, is condescension.

I own an .22 target pistol I haven't shot in 15 years. I have little interest in guns. But I belong to the NRA and actively support the right to gun ownership. Based on some of the stories I have heard from cops in my relatively high crime area of Hollywood, I would especially like to see more women owning guns, and trained and confident in their use. I get by with a protection dog. But my friend, who trains Malinois for the police and is a lot bigger and tougher than I am, never goes outside at night without both his dog and a concealed .45. His right.