Gun Ownership

As a gun owner and father, it was with great interest that I read Wayne Cooper’s article (“A Game of Bang-Bang, You’re Dead,” Commentary, July 20). I too grew up in a home with firearms. They were locked away in a gun cabinet, except for the handgun my dad used for home protection. That he kept in a drawer in the bedroom. Unlike Wayne Cooper, however, my father taught me gun safety, the first rule of which is, all guns are always loaded all the time until and unless you personally can verify the gun is unloaded. Never was a lethal weapon to be treated as a toy.

And in the case of Cooper, the second rule of gun safety was also not observed, never point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy. Further, my father never countenanced the gratuitous slaughter of an animal for target practice unless it was vermin. The Times would do well to add some objectivity to the firearms debate. All gun owners are not the irresponsible “rednecks” you portray.

PERRY KNEISEL

Redondo Beach