I just read the letter by David O. Locke (“Good guy with gun could save lives,” July 20). My guess is that Locke is a reasonable and intelligent citizen. But his opinion that an “armed citizen” is what we need to ensure law and order and the protection of others is absolutely moronic. Yet it is the opinion of many of our politicians, their eager constituents, and the NRA.

What if the incident at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Augusta had a little bit of a different scenario? Try this: What if one of the people who appeared to Daniel Chavanne to be an aggressor had actually been trying to protect themselves and had fired their weapon at the other person? So Chavanne becomes an instant judge of what’s going on and erroneously blows the innocent person away. Whoa!

Look folks. This is the United States of America. We should be able to walk our streets safely. We need to enforce the law where the law is being broken. And, if the law is being broken we need to address why people are being driven to break the law. Fix that. And let’s get rid of this “armed camp” mentality too.

Alex Poliakoff

Richmond