40 years ago I hunted ducks and doves. [View all]

[Photographer]

And I ate them after cooking them. I lived in the country and it was a way of life for me. I had a 12 gauge Remington which I had purchased from Sears. I could also hit 100 out of 100 hand thrown skeet.

Then I grew up.

I decided I didn't like killing things. I sold the gun and never owned another.

A few years later, my life took me to manage a Woolworth's which had a sporting goods center where we sold everything except handguns. Mini-14's Old Mauser 8mm's a variety of 30-06's and shotguns. I learned a lot there.

The Mini-14's are .223 cal like the guns used in yesterday's violence. I learned that they weren't that good for hunting deer because the caliber was too small and would often just breeze through the target before bouncing around and destroying organs. They are pretty much designed to kill people. At the time, most of the Ruger Mini 14 customers were cops who would buy large clips and tape a couple together so they could flip it in a moment to increase the fire power. The guns would then reside in the officer's trunk and wait for a riot or something that the cops in Atlanta seemed to be expecting back in the early 70's there.

I also learned about straw buyers and killers when ATF came in tracking guns that were sold there before my arrival.

I guess this walk down my memory lane is cementing the fact that I feel I left guns behind is because "I grew up." Both physically and spiritually in the sense that I wanted to have as little to do as possible with the taking of life. I left Woolworth's after only a couple of years.

I also have to wonder after reading many pro gun posts how the hell I have lived so long without owning or carrying a gun. I have lived in inner cities, sketchy rural areas, even had guns pulled on me a couple of times. All that and never once was shot. None of the people I know or known have ever been shot or had to shoot someone in self defense.

I feel that many of the posts we read here today rallying around the gun and how it's necessary for self defense are pure bullshit. Those sorts of situations are scarce as hen's teeth but I'm sure someone will post articles about a convenience store operator scaring off or killing a robber.

The thing is, I don't want to kill a robber or anyone else. I can only speak from my personal experience in which I have lived without a gun with no repercussions from deciding to live in such a fashion. Chances are most people in America can fare as well.