handguns, handguns... my first handgun.

Smith and Wesson model 649. A used stainless steel .38 special with wooden grips that I exchanged for a very grippy rubber pair. The salesman didn't return the used pieces, and consequently I got ripped off. He probably knew I was inexperienced and wouldn't think to ask for them back. Score one for the gun store dick at four seasons in Woburn, Mass.

The unique feature of this gun is the "shrouded hammer." This allows the hammer to be cocked by thumb but doesn't leave it sticking out from the frame. This lets you carry it in your pocket and get it out in a jiffy without the hammer getting caught against your clothes.

A simple gun. If I care for it it'll outlast me. It's already twenty-five years old and still works fine.

No wonder there are so many guns out there.

I support gun control, by the way.

It ought to be difficult to get a gun in the first place and IMPOSSIBLE to buy them in large numbers at one time. One a month seems a reasonable compromise. I doubt very many of the revolutionary war's peasant heroes ever bought thirty weapons at one time. Seems a reasonable compromise between liberty and law.