Platform : Would You Ever Give Up Your Gun?

Nothing in this world would get me to give up my gun. Guys like me have a gun for a reason. You work all day, then you go home, go to sleep, and in the night you hear a noise, you see a big shadow of a man over your bed. It is my worst nightmare. I sleep with my gun under my pillow. If good people give up their guns, the hooligans will take advantage of us.

About three months ago my friend was driving in a bad part of town and someone shot out her tire and I had to go get her. The next day I bought my gun, a .357 Magnum. I had it in my car when I went to a gas station in Hollywood and three men in their 20s came up and asked me if I had money. I said no and they called me a name. While I was pumping gas they began to surround me. I asked them nicely to please get away and they cursed me. One was coming up behind me, another almost hurtling toward me. I pulled out my gun--my hands were shaking--and I said: “You don’t want to die and I don’t want to kill you.” They backed off.

There should be one firearm per household. It would deter people from breaking in, from getting in fights with neighbors.

For us hard-working people who like to use our brains more than our bodies, we need something to make us equal. A hoodlum’s whole life is learning how to hurt and disable people. With today’s economy we can’t afford police to protect us every time we go out to walk a dog or go to a bank teller machine.

It would be the most horrid experience for me to shoot someone, because you never know why someone robs you. They could be desperate and hungry, be a mother or father. If only we had a better justice system--if some people would quit blaming their tragedies on others, stop feeling sorry for themselves, go to school and learn a trade, instill pride in their lives.

When people start respecting themselves, they will be respected. When that happens, millions of people like me will stop buying guns.