Availability

* Recent reports of school violence and comments blaming those tragedies on the proliferation of guns took me back to a better time--a time when every home in my neighborhood was unlocked and every parent looked out for every kid.

There were guns in all those homes (at least the ones I was in).

I went to high school in Southern California in the early 1950s, long before the Brady Bill or even the 1968 ban on mail-order gun sales. We had a rifle club at school; many of us carried our guns to school. There was no waiting period to purchase a gun; we could buy them at most hardware stores. Thrifty Drug store sold ammunition and hunting licenses.

With the vastly greater availability of guns at that time, I can’t remember that we had anything approaching the level of crime and violence that we have today. Is there a chance that gun laws may not be the answer?

I also recall that when I went to school there was still a moral code taught in the public schools. We were allowed to pray in school, some teachers even encouraged it. We said the Pledge of Allegiance and we were taught respect. Why is it impossible to return to those morals and teachings?

I started this to protest against gun law, and it has grown into a memoir of a better time in our history. I am still opposed to restrictive firearms legislation. It wasn’t necessary then and it is obviously not working now. We have more repressive laws all the time and violence only increases.

Maybe we need to start teaching like we did back when I was in school. It worked pretty good for us!

LEON RIGGS

Ojai