Thank you, Gene Kuhns, for your entertaining letter to the editor (“Misuse of guns is responsible for deaths,” Oct. 23). The picture of your shotgun and ammo sitting peacefully on the porch while friends and neighbors walked by unharmed was clever.

It was clever and it was wrong.

It was wrong because it assumes two kinds of people: honest citizens or hardened criminals. I think I’m more complicated than that. There have been times in my life when I might have used a gun and now am deeply grateful I didn’t have one handy.

I have been momentarily so angry that I wanted to hurt someone. There have been times when I have felt threatened but it turned out to be nothing. I have seen someone running away with my wallet and desperately wanted to stop him.

Without a gun, I found another way of dealing with my anger. Without a gun, I found another way to protect myself from a threat. Without a gun, I found another way of coping with the loss of a wallet.

With a gun, any one of those situations could have turned deadly, and if they had I would today be living with shame and guilt.

It’s true, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Guns are levers of our power, and we all misuse our powers sometimes.

I’d rather my own mistakes not be deadly ones.

— James Hauser