<table> </table> I heard myself begin the familiar gun rant, not knowing Lori Reynolds had been shot dead the night before. Shot six times because she refused to serve a man a drink in the Kansas City, Kan., bar where she worked.</p><p>Maybe you read about Lori, or saw her friends and family in television footage this weekend.</p><p>They gathered in grief outside the Gossip Inn bar, its doorway stuffed with bouquets in her memory.</p><p>Lori was murdered early Saturday by a thug who didn&#8217;t have the identification required to be served. He shot her, pumped several more rounds around the bar, and ran out the door.</p><p>Everything said about Lori in news coverage &#8212; her gregarious nature, the description as a &#8220;popular&#8221; bartender &#8212; is absolutely true.</p><p>It has been years since I last saw her, but I can still hear her throaty voice, that deep laugh. And how she&#8217;d greet my now ex-husband. She was the type of person who always seemed genuinely happy to see you.</p><p>So opening Sunday&#8217;s newspaper and seeing her photo under the headline: &#8220;Gunman opens fire in tavern,&#8221; was jolting, for lack of a better word.</p><p>Especially in light of the conversations I had Saturday and last week. All of them involved guns: their lure, how they are tied to our national image in positive and negative ways, and the havoc they cause in the hands of the ignorant.</p><p>My fear-based commentary on guns Saturday followed a day watching expert FBI marksmen at a shooting range in Leavenworth, and doing a little target shooting myself.</p><p>I&#8217;m part of the current class of the FBI Citizen&#8217;s Academy, a program that gives a close look at the FBI. Weekly meetings detail the FBI&#8217;s anti-terrorism efforts, drug work, homicide cases, cyber crimes, etc.</p><p>The day spent with FBI SWAT teams at a shooting range is always highly anticipated.</p><p>Amazing marksmanship is displayed. They possess skills with weapons that most people could never attain. And then the class and their guests get to shoot.</p><p>It&#8217;s the kind of day that entices those inclined toward the sportsmanship of guns. For my guest, the day caused him to muse about doing more shooting soon, or even buying a gun to own.</p><p>For a man who was once quite the expert shot with a rifle, it was not an odd desire. He&#8217;d be a responsible gun owner.</p><p>But when he said it, I launched into a well-trod verbal path, the one where I recount why guns terrify me.</p><p><em>People think they can defend themselves, but often end up getting shot by their own weapon. What if a child would get hold of it? In the heat of the moment, say a robbery, would the owner be able to pull the trigger, maintain the cool stability necessary for an accurate hit?</em></p><p>I&#8217;m not anti-gun. One of my brothers is an avid hunter. Like most sportsmen, he is diligent about gun safety. And I&#8217;ve shot at target ranges before, and liked it.</p><p>But I&#8217;ve also seen what bodies look like after they&#8217;ve been shot.</p><p>Often they are innocent bodies, of children or people like Lori.</p><p>This truth was central to another gun conversation last week, with a Kansas City police officer. He fears a violent summer. Hoodlum kids, all armed, with no regard for others during their little games of shooting from cars. The people in the way will not have an FBI marksman to cover their back.</p><p>In the gun debate, I often hear voices like mine, that hedge toward worst-case scenarios. And yet, like most people, I have few suggestions for keeping guns away from the irresponsible.</p><p>But deaths like Lori&#8217;s have to be taken into account as much as the right responsible people have to own guns.</p><p>Maybe breeding a healthy respect for weapons into the national fabric is the place to start. Kids play violent video games, but few know what a human body sprayed with bullets looks like. They don&#8217;t think that shooting at a door can kill a 2-year-old child on the other side, as happened last spring.</p><p>The core problem is an easy access to guns, but no respect for them. Or respect for human life, as the family and friends of Lori Reynolds have so sadly learned.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">More columns </span></strong><br /> Mary Sanchez is a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services. Read her Tribune column on Barack Obama&#8217;s bitter comment on KansasCity.com.</p><p></div>