So when the value of one’s work is recognized by the World Out There, it’s a very big deal, and you note it down in the balance ledger of whether it’s worthwhile to keep going or not.

I just had the thrill of my life. I was in front of my TV set, just about to go downstairs and remove my clothes from the dryer, when a commentary by KCBS Los Angeles anchorman Michael Tuck caught my eye.

Tuck started out by postulating a scenario in which other high school students would have been armed when one was shot and killed by a gang member a few days ago. He ranted, and raved, and foamed at the mouth against the “gun nuts” who would have armed the rest of the students, who would then have all pulled out their guns simultaneously, firing wildly in a cacophony not heard since Woodstock.

Mr. Tuck then talked about the lawsuit which I helped instigate, against the Los Angeles Police Department, which resulted in the LAPD once again obeying California law in its requirement that county residents of good moral character who can show good cause shall be issued licenses to carry concealed weapons. He ranted and raved, tossing around the phrase “gun nut” twice per sentence, then quoted me from Scott Harris’s column in the September 6, 1993 Los Angeles Times — identifying me as a “ringleader” of those who filed the law suit — in which I stated, “It is a fundamental error in society to expect an elite group of professionals to provide public safety. In my view, public safety is everybody’s job.”

Then he called me a “gun nut” again, along with all the other gun nuts who think innocent people should be better armed than the criminals.

Wow.

I’ve had some thrills in my life, but this was the best.

It was thrilling when Anthony Burgess and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman lent their endorsements to my first novel.

It was thrilling when Robert Heinlein told me he laughed his ass off at the satirical parts of my second novel.

It was thrilling on two occasions when I twice received the Prometheus Award for my novels.

It was thrilling when the producer who gave Rod Serling his first job in television told me my 1986 Twilight Zone episode, “Profile in Silver,” was in his opinion the only one which would have fit into the original show.

But to be called a ringleader of gun nuts by a news reader on a Sunday evening local broadcast, that has got to be the best.

Thank you, Michael Tuck. You made my day.

Next in Stopping Power — Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns is Reply to the Executives of the ACLU of Southern California on the Meaning of the Second Amendment