Another confession... to set the record straight about putting aside the BB gun.  I have not personally owned another gun since the BB gun was put under the bed.  Margaret and I have never owned or kept a gun in our home; but when I was in graduate schooI, I worked for a couple of years as a guard at San Quentin Prison.  Regular training with guns was part of the job.  Most of the time I worked in cell blocks and other facilities with inmates; and, of course, prison personnel don’t carry guns or any weapons in those places.  When I was assigned duty on a wall post or in a tower, I was required to carry a gun. 

I had been a school teacher for a couple of years before I worked at San Quentin. When I went back to school I was married with a wife and son. I needed a job.  With the prison job I got salary, good benefits, discretionary time off for exams or papers. I worked at night leaving days “free” for school.  After two surreal years, I went back to teaching English at Yuba City High School... better prepared by the prison experience coupled with rigorous academics for a long career as educator than I would have been by graduate school done in isolation away from the often brutal realities of human life on the edge that is concentrated in a maximum security prison.  

But that’s not the point of this writing.  I need to set the record straight about my opinions of the people who have chosen careers in military and law enforcement.  I have tremendous respect for them and support them.  We need them.  Because of their  careers, our country and our neighborhoods are safe places to live .  Just as there are some unprincipled, misplaced rogues among the ranks of teachers and administrators, there are people in jobs that require them to carry and use guns who should have found other careers.  The problem with guns in America is basically not a problem with military and law enforcement. The NRA and the run-away gun industry are obscenely rich not by meeting the equipment needs of law enforcement and military organizations.  The NRA doesn’t speak for legitimate police and other law enforcement officers or for people in the military.  People in law enforcement and military jobs are put in greater personal danger by unregulated civil gun ownership which the NRA supports.