SOUTH NEWFANE — I live deep in the woods on a dead-end country road, and I have a pistol and a rifle. I grew up here, and it is still remote. Guns help ward off bears, which have actually entered my home. It also is a nice security measure, since police help is 20 minutes away at the least.
I distinctly remember my father answering the door with a loaded rifle within arm's reach when two drunk men showed up one evening. They had gone off the road farther down and needed to make a call.
Dad handed the receiver out the window and dialed for them. There was no chance he would invite drunk men into our home with me there. Safety first. They never saw the gun, but he was prepared in the event they would decide to make trouble.
There are no second chances here in the woods. My music teacher, Robin Colson, never got that second chance. She was murdered in cold blood for her car in 1990 by two escaped convicts who came through the woods to her home.
Never forget. Never relinquish our guns.