Taking Aim at GunsI love Susan Spano’s...

Taking Aim at Guns

I love Susan Spano’s column, except when she mentions firearms in conjunction with stories about women in the back country (“A City Girl Learns About Taking to the Woods--Without Help From a Man,” Her World, Dec. 5).

I worked as a National Park Service police officer for 10 years, carrying a .357 magnum pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and other nasty equipment. I have spent much of my life in the wilderness.

Rifles and shotguns, you suggest, are for hunting food. Who in their right mind would shoot a possibly disease-ridden animal in the wilderness when it is so much easier to carry a portable stove and macaroni and cheese? Protection? Against what? Unruly male humans? Yes, such men do roam our parks and forests, but firearms will not protect anyone. Vigilance, intellect and care will. Guns are antithetical to loving the wilderness. They are a crutch, not a route to womanly independence.

VALERIE P. COHEN

Cedar City, Utah