I don't want to accuse a sweet little town like Silverton as being a haven for ignorance, gun-totting and full blown hootenannyism but this is an anecdote that must be shared with the world. Before you read the following, please give Silverton's Wikipedia page a prerequisite glance and have a look at the site for the Oregon Garden to get a better perspective on what this historic community of 10,000 or so people has to offer. Also, please disregard this.

With that out of the way, let's talk about six year olds and machine guns.

A few friends of mine live near an "officer of the peace" in Silverton. During a recent visit, I happened to look down the street and spotted this individual walking into his house with two machine guns, one in each arm. This is not considered an everyday occurrence in my neck of the Willamette Valley.

So I asked one of my friends about it and they broke out a story about something that happened a few weeks ago. One afternoon they spotted a child, right around six, walking around the officer's lawn with a fully-loaded M-16. At first they assumed it was a toy and he seemed to be having a ball with it, pointing it at random objects around the neighborhood. Then the kid's mother darted out of the house and tore the gun out of his hands.

And to think I've been complaining about the Labrador Retriever next door that likes to bark at traffic on sunny days.