Powerful Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post

And you thought your job was tough:

Regarding the District's gun laws and D.C. Assistant Police Chief Winston Robinson Jr.'s reference to Virginia Tech and "guns in the hands of people who shouldn't have them" ["Full Court Will Not Review Ruling," Metro, May 9]:

What the D.C. appellate court does could ultimately affect me and others across the country, if the case involving the District's 30-year-old ban on handgun ownership goes to the Supreme Court.

I work the graveyard shift at a convenience store in Alaska, where I have been robbed seven times. I have also been sexually assaulted twice. I was unarmed. Therefore I think more in terms of guns in the hands of people who desperately need them. I'm glad Mr. Robinson is permitted to carry a gun anywhere he goes. However, he wasn't there, nor was any other police officer, when I was raped. He wasn't there when one robber (carrying a knife, actually) came tearing around the counter at me, and I knew with religious certainty I was going to die. The only ones who were ever there were the robber or rapist and me.

So unless and until the courts can take the weapon out of their hands, don't take the gun out of mine.

PAM SIEGFRIED

Anchorage