A letter in Wednesday’s paper from a woman who probably knows nothing about guns or the Second Amendment asked what anyone can do to stop the sale of guns. I say not a thing can be done, nor should anything be done.

Without guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens you would have no freedom in this country. I have a friend who lives in the United Kingdom who had several handguns that were bought back from by the British government. He said they paid him more than what he paid for them. I told him “but you lost your freedom”. He had no answer for that.

In another part of the paper was an article about a woman whose child was killed in Uvalde, Texas, that was suing the gun manufacturer. The manufacturer had nothing to do with it. In 2021, when President Joe Biden sent me my stimulus check, I went out and bought an AR-15. Thank you Joe. Now, I spent three years in the military police and I know how to exercise restraint and am not prone to randomly shooting up a school, bar or church, but I will protect myself and all members of my family if someone thinks they would like to harm any of us.

A lot of people in Alaska use AR-15S for hunting. If you were hunting and a bear was coming at you to attack and you shot it and it is still coming at you, you would be glad you do not have to cock the action for another to shot the bear. The bear might win the battle.

I am always amazed at people who say we need to do something but never offer solutions. You need to come up with some ideas. You never do.

So live with guns in our society and be glad you’re still living in the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Eric Despres Calhan