Dear friend, I want to check in with you. As before, I am concerned about you. You told me I shouldn’t be, but I can’t help myself. I want things to work out for you. I want you to be happy and healthy and your family safe and secure. How are you? How is your family? I know there were some intense and angry conversations around your dinner table during the first term of the current president of the United States. I know some family members got so angry at Thanksgiving one year that they didn’t come for Christmas. We haven’t been close, but I am concerned about you.

You know who you are. I think you know which friend I’m addressing with this inquiry. You are the one who was proud to put the red sticker of the National Rifle Association on the back window of your pickup truck. I asked you about it, and you explained that it was all about freedom and that you were worried that there were evil people who intended to take over our government and rob you of your freedom. Your membership in the NRA was, for you, a way to protect your rights, if I understood what you said correctly.

I know we haven’t spoken in a while. I didn’t reach out to you a year ago when the CEO of your organization was found guilty by a jury of his peers of misspending millions of dollars of your organization’s money on pricy perks for himself. I’m pretty sure that you would disapprove of the dollars you sent to protect freedom being invested in private jets and trips to the Bahamas. I know you know the value of a dollar, and I suspect that the whopping $4,351,231 in restitution was enough to get your attention. But I didn’t want to appear gloating, so I kept quiet. I probably shouldn’t have.

So now, I want to check in with you to make sure that things are OK with you. I know you found my arguments weak when we last spoke. I suppose they were. I couldn’t imagine that there were evil men with lots of wealth who were preparing a hostile takeover of the US Government. I found it hard to accept your claim that there were evil people who would be convicted if they faced trial for their felonies who might seize power in an autocratic fashion. I didn’t take you seriously when you warned that a power-hungry person could take over the administration, ignore the courts, act without the consent of Congress, and get away with stealing our democracy. I guess I was wrong about all of that.

That is why I’m checking in with you right now. You said that if it ever happened, you and your friends would need your guns to defend democracy. Your guns, you said, were the only line of defense against evil people wanting to take all of the wealth and power from the people of the United States. And now that all those things have happened, now that a convicted felon who has escaped punishment for his crimes is ignoring court orders and acting with impunity and has subverted the authority of congress and seized control of the spending and budget without consent, now that people with vast amounts of money but no elected position and no constitutional authority are firing good people from government and refusing to spend money according to laws passed by congress, now I’m worried about you.

I don’t know where you are in all of this. I hope you aren’t preparing to use your guns to hurt someone. I know you said you and your friends would be willing to die for freedom, but I don’t want you to die. You probably remember that I was dismissive of your ability to use hunting rifles and a few handguns to stage a military uprising. I’m pretty sure I made you angry with my comment that the Second Amendment guarantees “a well-organized militia, not a bunch of random gun nuts and collectors.” OK, that was a bit harsh on my part, but genuine concern for your well-being was behind it. I don’t want you to be hurt. I don’t want you to die from a gunshot.

Maybe you remember that I told you that your guns posed a risk to you, that if you were ever to suffer from depression or fall into a fit of anger, they might become weapons of suicide or homicide. I’d been to too many homes where people used firearms to kill themselves. I’d sat with too many shocked and grieving family members not to notice how their guns got used.

I know you got caught up in collecting. I understand that some of the guns in your safe haven’t been fired in years and haven’t been cleaned and maintained as well as you imagined you would care for them. I know that you bought the heavy gun safe more out of a fear of burglars stealing your property than out of protection for yourself from those weapons. But I also know you stockpiled a lot of ammunition. You remember that I told you about two occasions when I visited with deputies who had been called to move firefighters back from burning buildings because the ammunition inside the buildings was exploding and creating too much risk for those fighting the fires. You thought my warning was silly and that such could never happen to you.

But now, I admit that I haven’t kept up. Still, I am worried about you. I don’t want to see an armed uprising. I know that our nation is in the grips of our history's most serious constitutional crisis. I know there are people in power who have no concern for the freedom of others and no respect for us, the people of the United States. But I’m asking you once again not to take up your guns and brandish them. I know your occasional trips to the rifle range don’t constitute military training. I know your impressive collection is no match for tanks, armored vehicles, missiles, drones, and robotic weapons.

So, please, take a breath. Calm your body and your soul. Join me in praying for our democracy, judges, and courts. Write letters hoping that some of the members of Congress still have a modicum of conscience and a sliver of spine. And whatever you do, remember that I do care about you. We might disagree about the sticker on the back window of your pickup truck. Still, we don’t disagree about our love for this country’s marvelous democratic experiment of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.