I haven't spoken out about this issue earlier, as it is such an emotional issue -- and because the emotions people are experiencing are both strong and volatile. I saw no need to "stir the pot."

Personally, I have conflicted feelings about personal gun ownership. I recognize that as a US citizen, the right to bear arms is a right our forefathers thought we citizens ought to have, and I hate to see rights taken away from us.

On the other hand, I believe the reason our country's founders made the right to bear arms law had a lot to do with the fact that as a fledgling country, we didn't have a significant militia.

So we needed citizen soldiers who could be called up on a moment's notice. And of course, there were areas of wilderness, where settling pioneers would need to protect themselves from bears, coyotes, and other wild beasts.

And I also believe that our forefathers had no anticipation that we would someday be talking about ordinary citizens packing assault rifles -- with semi-automatic shooting capabilities and large ammunition clips -- as a means of personal protection.

But getting back to the present, I just read in the Washington Post that, as previously promised, President Obama will unveil a sweeping set of gun-control proposals at midday tomorrow.

According to sources who ought to know, we can expect that it will include an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and limits on the number of bullets magazines can hold. All reasonable, IMHO.

The announcement, to be delivered at the White House, is also expected to include a slate of up to 19 executive actions that the Obama administration can take on its own to attempt to limit gun violence.

At the same time, I heard on the news this morning that there are people in Texas who are advocating for arming our teachers. The idea, as I recall, is not to arm all teachers, but to adopt the "air marshall" concept, and have some teacher in each school who is "packing a gun." The idea being that not knowing WHO is actually armed will be a deterrent.

And I saw another video clip that was about some man who teaches gun handling. Since the Newtown shootings he has been offering his class free to teachers, and so far over 500 teachers have taken him up on his offer.

So I know teachers must be worried. They correctly see that places where lots of people congregate, like schools, workplaces, movie theatres, and even shopping malls, are places where mentally deranged people with grudges go for target practice. And who wants to think about being stuck in one of those places when the next crazy person goes on a rampage...

Home schooling, telecommuting and internet shopping are not the answer. We all have the right to move about at will, and not be confined to our homes for our safety.

And of course, staying at home does not guarantee one safety. We've got an epidemic of domestic violence, as well.

So how are we going to solve this gun situation? Let's talk about some ideas here.

Personally, though it's rather simplistic, I like Ann Curry's idea that we each do 26 acts of kindness in honor of those who died in Newtown. But I can't say that I've yet started my own kindness campaign...

Maybe I'll make that a goal for the coming year.

How about you? How are you dealing with this issue? I'd like to know...

And finally, I've just gotta say one more thing: Wouldn't it be great if we could be worrying here about "the right to 'bare arms' as we age and our upper arm muscles sag," instead of this? (Sorry, the punster in me just couldn't be totally controlled...)