I owned my first rifle at age 10; added a scope at age 11. It was a bolt action Winchester .22 with a six-cartridge clip magazine.

I remember when the National Rifle Association was a service organization. During World War II, it trained volunteers like my firefighter father to use firearms for homeland defense.

I owned more than a dozen guns in my high school and early college years. Half were vintage rifle specimens and the rest were current-model rifles and handguns. I loaded my own blackpowder cartridges for some of the oldies. When I went to Riverside County, outside Los Angeles, I got a license to carry three handguns. (I didn’t want to carry them, I just wanted to be safe if they were found in the trunk in a traffic stop while I was still a teenager).

I feel safer in Wallowa County than in the many states I’ve lived and worked in. The 32nd best state for gun owners suits me fine. My guns are gone. The 77-year-old rifle is with my daughter on the coast. Now ballot Measure 32-007 would put me in a state that is the “second best state for gun owners.”

We’re required to show competency for a license to drive. Why not a background check for a lethal weapon? A lunatic with an assault rifle can shoot from a high point and wipe out dozens to hundreds of people.

Assault weapons belong on the battlefield. Shooting a game animal would result in liquefaction, yielding no useful meat.

I learned to respect firearms from my father before I was 10 years old. It has served me well.

Ed Pitts

Joseph