Cough, not gun, scared bears away

The news has a lot of anti- and some positive gun stories and being an old retired U.S. Air Force soldier, I would like to add a few real time observations about hand guns.

First, having big muscles, as in movie characters, do not out run bullets especially machine guns. Many years ago when I was stationed in Alaska, as a pilot, we all carried a very lightweight .38-caliber pistol. We flew with it and many times would forget and walk into a bank with it concealed in a perfect gangster-looking holster. Oh yes, I felt secure with my gun. You gun owners, stop and think of the power this item has in your position? I don’t have to really ask.

In my jet fighter I had my “gun” plus all sorts of missiles and rockets. Now, the real world and keep in mind, I was an expert with my “gun’ you are probably not.

My World War II old pilot and myself were uranium hunting in some serious wilderness country. My buddy had a cigarette problem, we were out of matches. I was using a magnifying glass focusing on his cigarette trying to get him fired up.

We were very quiet focusing on his cigarette when we looked up the hill and we see a huge mama bear with cubs! We just froze looking at three bears looking, and one cub started to come toward us. Right then, I knew my “gun” was worthless! In one instant my exceptional hand gun training was a joke. Maybe a big stick might save our lives? My friend, with his cigarette addiction went into a coughing fit and scared the baby bears back to mama bear!

True story from my other life as I call it.

Can any of this apply to one of our school teachers being armed and most likely not being proficient shooting at a paper target?

LEWIS WETZEL

Sandpoint