About two years ago, I wrote a letter to the ADN about my fearfulness of having so many handguns among so many Alaskans. I complained about someone described in the ADN who was playing with a loaded handgun in a Kenai coffee shop. It went off, sending shrapnel everywhere and injuring others. And in the same paper of the same day, a gun fight was described in Anchorage, with innocent bystanders wounded.
Well, here we go again. In the May 26 edition of the ADN, an article described an Alaskan who had his concealed weapon, cocked and with a bullet in the chamber no less, in a Wasilla grocery store bathroom. The gun went off, the bullet careened through the walls of the store — fortunately, not hitting anyone. And again, in the same paper, on the same page no less, there was a description of a gunfight over a dog with one dead and one fighting for his life.
I read ADN almost daily, and in that two-year interim, I have not seen a single article about anyone using a handgun at the ready to save some innocent victim, an event all these gun-handlers seem so fearful of. As I said two years ago, handguns do not make us safer, but more at risk. Humanity is too unpredictable, and no amount of "required" training will solve this. Handguns should be banned.
Bill Herman
Anchorage
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