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Gun ownership today and in Old West

Owning a gun is an inalienable American right. We have them on hand to secure our homes and businesses while criminals give guns a bad image.

My family lineage hails from pre-statehood New Mexico, where sheriffs were few and many locals openly carried guns. New Mexico was last to join up with the rest of the states; guns were put into the holsters of professional law men. But the Stage Coach robbers still had them.

Gun ownership was of scant interest during the Great Depression. John Q. Public was more concerned in buying food than buying guns. Guns were mostly in the hands of Prohibition era gangsters shooting at each other and the John Dillinger era bank robbers types using them in bank robberies and police shoot outs.

Today's prosperous era created an insatiable appetite for guns being easy to legally buy or otherwise acquire illegally. Unfortunately unstable individuals found easy access to the weapons used in recent mass shootings. Dallas, three universities and even a Florida Gay Bar became victims of easily acquired guns while Chicago's many illegal guns has created the murder capital of the world with 1,000 shootings to date and counting.

This phenomenon has again raised the issue for American citizens to legally carry guns as in the old West, but creates legal issues. If two citizens are shooting at each other a third armed citizen on the scene is given a though call on what to do. While in a similar scenario a policeman might shoot a suspect who makes a sudden move during questioning. An armed homeowner faces the dilemma of having his trigger finger on hold to legally shoot an intruder only if he presents an imminent danger coming at him but not running away.

Walter Santi

Bloomingdale

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