[tomwed]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I had never met a person who owned a gun, other than for hunting, (and my grandfather, a police officer) in my life until I moved here. I was astonished, as I feel this is just as safe as the Ohio suburb I left.( In 20 years, 100k people, two murders. ) But I have since learned that all of the gun owners are ordinary people, not any different than the non gun owners I lived near before. Many had military careers, or moved from very different areas than the place I lived all of my life. They were big on gun safety and didn't talk about it or show off about it at all. I opened my mind and really felt safer knowing that most of my neighbors were armed, when we had that rash of burglaries a few months back. We have a very safe environment here, I like it a lot and I like the gun owners and the non gun owners.

I know this, that as we age we can't kick, bite, punch, run, smack or scream like we used to. But we have a right to protect ourselves in any way we can.

Where I lived only the hunters and police officers I know had guns too. And like you my position is shifting too. If "would be" buglers are not sure which houses or cars are carrying a weapon then maybe that protects me too. But there is a part of me that says "If I don't have a gun then I can't shoot anyone by mistake." So I guess I'm still mulling this over.