I have owned guns for 50 years. My first was a .22 pump rifle. I still have the targets from when my Dad took me shooting at the YMCA in Portland.

My dad was a policeman in South Portland for 22 years. He kept his service revolver in a dresser drawer in his bedroom, loaded at all times, and my brother and I never touched it. He said if we wanted to see it, he would show us, which he did on occasion (unloaded). This was between the time I was 5 and my brother was 2 all the way up until I moved out.

I agree that some people are careless with guns today, but it’s because they weren’t brought up to respect guns. That is called discipline! Because we are a “politically correct” society, there is no discipline! I got spanked and I haven’t shot anybody. You can’t even look sideways at a kid today or someone will turn you in.

All the gun laws, all the restrictions on design, capacity or style won’t change things. People fear what they don’t understand. People like California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, financier George Soros and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg all have bodyguards who “carry.” Why are they any different? And where was Sarah Brady before her husband was shot? Never heard of her, did you?

I am a life member of the National Rifle Association, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and have been a member of the Spurwink Rod & Gun Club since 1997, and financial secretary since 2003. We check our applicants out and are constantly tweaking the process to make sure people are what they say.

We have a good group of people and I think I can say on their behalf that we mourn the losses in Connecticut and in all the shootings of innocent people in recent times, but we are responsible gun owners.

Richard A. Aspinall Sr. is a resident of Scarborough.