To the editor:

Guns, guns, guns. Everybody needs guns? American television has desensitized young and old with violent entertainment, mayhem, no longer gut-wrenching but accepted viewing for all. Mindless stupidity. When did so many feel the need of being on guard, gun toting?

As a child, I grew up with guns owned by a father/sportsman. Beautiful engraved barrels on shotguns for trap and skeet, and he was good. I watched him break 99 out of 100 clay pigeons almost every time. A great sportsman, great marksmanship. He attended the Grand American National Handicap at Vandalia, Ohio, to compete. Clark Gable, actor, was there, a great shot. Mother played in a bridge tournament there while Dad did his thing. And this in the mid-1930s, during the Depression.

Mother said money for his sports kept him well; he worked long hours, on call day and night. She set friends straight when chiding her for his spending. His shooting, rod and reel fishing kept him well all his long life.

Instead of sportsmanship, now gun ownership’s run amok, concealed carry, kids with guns, public places not immune. Every Tom, Dick and Harry swaggers, feeling tall, invincible, super-smart with his own rod, a page out of the Old West movies. The movies and newspapers testify to the insanity, crimes by those misguided, unstable dimwits. A sad testament on our country, not so scary as absolutely infuriating.

Sue Hess,

Lawrence