It was not the struggling-for-the-gun sort of self defense, but something older and deeper, steeped in reputation and bad blood.
Thus begins "The Night of the Gun," the sort of narrative that Katherine Anne Porter, in a different context, once described as "the downward path to wisdom".
As journalists, because you don't carry a gun, you sort of become this observer.
Instead of turning schools into zero-tolerance zones for guns, we should let the NRA teach special classes in gun use, sort of like Drivers' Ed, and ROTC should be established in all schools.
They compare their respective guns, a sort of mating ritual in this brave new world.
In Virginia, Governor George Allen (who is term-limited) has polished up that state's credentials as a highly conservative, God-fearing, gun-toting sort of place.
Now, though, we've got our hands on a smoking gun of sorts.
"You can also fly out of audio-visual range - so you can't see or hear it, meaning you can bypass physical security - men with guns, that sort of thing," he says.
The first is that Apple is using Digitude as a hired gun of sorts in its patent offensive, giving the company valuable patents to wield against its opponents (while avoiding the waves of press that are spurred by each new lawsuit).
The stinger is an "insect gun" of sorts – it neutralises the size difference between assailant and victim.
DON'T: STOCK UP ON SUPPLIES At this point you've started noticing the weird boys-with-bunkers stocking up on tinned food – beans with impossible shelf-lives, tubes of "astronaut food", UHT milk, guns, that sort of thing.
