Our guns, in photos: Stories, reasons and beliefs behind our firearms

By John Wellington

On one Wisconsin evening, a few friends convened in my dorm room. Between mouthfuls of venison jerky, a plan slowly took shape. I would put my time on the rifle range into practice, joining them on a trip to South Dakota to hunt deer. I had become the owner of a Browning .270 -- a gift from my father -- the previous Christmas. As is common with plans made late at night, our trip never materialized; instead, we went salmon ... more 

By John Wellington

On one Wisconsin evening, a few friends convened in my dorm room. Between mouthfuls of venison jerky, a plan slowly took shape. I would put my time on the rifle range into practice, joining them on a trip to South Dakota to hunt deer. I had become the owner of a Browning .270 -- a gift from my father -- the previous Christmas. As is common with plans made late at night, our trip never materialized; instead, we went salmon fishing. We kept on fishing through the next several deer seasons, the rifle and hunting trip long forgotten.

I'm still waiting for that first hunting trip.

It isn't hard to sympathize with some of the gun owners who feel threatened by the looming debate on gun control. They are the ones being asked to make sacrifices. Perhaps because my experiences are limited to the firing range, I don't view gun control as an assault on my personal freedom. Then again, deer rifles probably aren't on the chopping block, so I'm not giving anything up.

In either case, we already place limits on our freedoms -- speed limits and traffic signals, for example -- to ensure the safety of others. While the argument can be made that guns alone don't cause the tragedies on the news, it is impossible to imagine a shooting without one. As a country, we have to ask whether 30,000 annual gunshot fatalities is an acceptable price. I have my answer. Do you? less