Blaming gun storage

For all my childhood, and on into my late teens, the loaded rifle hung above the door of our ranch house. There was nothing unusual about it since the same was the case in many of our somewhat distant neighbors. We, early on, were taught what it was for and what it could do. As kids we also knew Dad’s orders regarding gun safety and gun handling were to be respected and obeyed. We never heard of such a thing as a gun safe, indeed we would have scoffed at such a time-consuming inconvenience. The pressing, urgent need for the rifle would have “expired” long before we removed the gun and loaded for it.

There were no school shootings. Moreover, murders in our gun-owning area were practically unheard of - and never carried out by juveniles.

In his typical leftist, blame-anyone-and-everything-but-the-real-culprits fashion, Shawn Vestal’s “solution” to school shootings, etc., is to lock up the guns (“Resistance to safe storage issue for guns is telling,” May 23, 2018). Not one word about the evils of society which lead to shootings and other violence. Yeah - just lock up all guns and use baseball bats, knives and what-have-yous! But don’t put the blame where it actually belongs!

Ken Campbell

Deer Park