Fifty-four years ago, I was a UH-1C helicopter gunship pilot in Vietnam, a position I would rather have not been in.
Be that as it may, it was an extremely dangerous job, especially since I flew in the mountains of I Corps, where most helicopters in the Vietnam conflict were lost.
In fact, the average time of flight before being shot at was 17 minutes.
My point to all this is, every day as we lifted off on whatever mission we were assigned, we wondered if today the bullet that will take my life will fly through the windshield or door.
I am old now and thought all this was behind me but, alas, it is not.
Now I face the same threat every time I travel on the highways and interstates of Washington state thanks to the inability to control criminal activity by our politicians, who, for some reason, think that attacking the law-abiding gun owner solves the problem somehow.
Truly a shame what has happened to our country.
Russell Cowley
Sequim