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To: letters@nytimes.com
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I initially assumed yesterday's comment on "The Right to Bare Arms" concerned religious dress codes - but that is neither here nor there.
Growing up in Britain in the 1950's, I never saw anyone carrying a gun until I moved to Germany in 1973, where it took me years to get used to seeing policemen carry them. They scared and intimidated me: mind your step, or I may shoot you . . . Gulp!
Carrying a gun is a "display of power", and - excepting those who do it professionally - a clear expression of our "more animal than human" nature. In different cultural circumstances men might bare and display their hairy chests - or their penises.
If they only realised what monkeys they are making of themselves (showing themselves to be - the planet's "Greatest Ape") when they insist on their right to bear arms, they would be acutely embarrassed and very ashamed of themselves.
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