Based on that article I was routinely characterized as an Ultra-Left-Wing Anti-Gun Propagandist, which I find hilariously funny. The truth is that I’ve been a gun owner for more than 40 years and am a gun owner today. “SECRETS OF THE GUN OWNERS” isn’t a collection of my opinions, it’s a collection of what gun enthusiasts talk about at night while cleaning their firearms (and drinking, of course) after a long day of shooting.

When not at Sharp Park, the once (now closed) shooting range in San Francisco with my girlfriend, a normal out-of-town shooting weekend would start with me and a buddy (also a gun owner, of course) crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, leaving the city – and by the way, we’d keep all the ammo in the backseat and all the guns in the trunk, if you keep the guns and ammo together and get stopped by the police: big trouble! – and travel out to the country up North where we had friends who also enjoyed guns. As I said above, we’d spend the rest of the day shooting – “plinking” mostly but we’d set-up a few targets as well – and the night we’d spend on the porch, warm starlit nights, drinking many gin gimlets, cleaning our firearms and talking about guns and gun politics.

I was then and still am a liberal as was my buddy from the city but all the others were decidedly on the right politically. My friend and I would not say much about politics – after all, we were in their house drinking their gin – as our liberal political opinions weren’t particularly welcome; but you better believe I listened to all of it. Of course they knew where we stood and got no end of enjoyment telling us just how wrong we were about everything and how dangerous to freedom the government was. Were they racists? Not outwardly, overtly or obviously - “polite company” and all - but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Well, I’m not. No, I’m not crazy, all my weapons – except for the first, an HK4 (pictured above) chambered for .380, which I purchased privately and ultimately was stolen and the robbery reported to the police – are and have always been legally purchased & registered – including background checks – from licensed Gun Stores and I have absolutely no intention of ever fighting any “Tyrannical Government.” Shooting guns was to me a hobby I enjoyed (I much preferred hand-guns to rifles) and never a life-style I embraced nor did I ever hunt (I eat meat but I understand they sell steak & chicken & all kinds of other meat products at super-markets!).

Contrarily, except for my buddy from the city, all my fellow shooters mentioned above owned secret guns – lots of secret guns (https://youtu....) – and held the extreme opinions about guns and politics expressed in that article. My “agenda” in writing the piece was to help people actually understand what we’re up against – the attitudes & perspectives of gun owners – if we ever hope to change the rules, such as they are.

And, no, I don’t think we should take everybody’s guns away. First of all, that’d be impossible. But I do believe they should all be registered. If you’re caught with one of your “Secret Guns” at the very least the gun should be immediately confiscated and if you get caught more than once there should be severe consequences. I think all guns should be purchased legally from licensed Gun Dealers – there should be no private sales; if you want to sell your gun, sell it to a pawn shop (i.e.: a licensed Gun Dealer) – and all buyers should submit to a thorough background check. I don’t believe there is any place for assault weapons and other weapons of war in the hands of the civilian population. And you can expect a visit from the F.B.I. and A.T.F. upon your sixth purchase of a firearm.

Now if all of that seems a little extreme to you please keep in mind that at no point do those aforementioned proposed rules and regulations prevent a person who isn’t crazy or a criminal from owning a firearm or even several firearms.

In closing, I find all the most recent mass shootings – Gilroy, El Paso, Dayton – as confirmation of the points I made in that previous article. All these shooters are terrorists, just like I said they’d be.

You betcha.