As is usually the case with armed robbers, the perpetrators in the recent Hungry Howie's holdup in Orlando were poster children for the Clinton/Gore gun control effort. You may recall that the two thugs walked into a Hungry Howie's pizza store, pistol-whipped the manager, then held a gun to one young worker's head while demanding cash. Unfortunately for them, the manager was armed and knew how to shoot. Result: One dead and one seriously wounded - both bad guys.

But just who were these criminals? Old toughs with long records? Well, partly yes.

Reginald Stokes began his life of crime began at age 12. He was 17 when it ended earlier this week. The second perpetrator was another one of those "children" shot each year that are so much on the mind of Clinton/Gore, 19-year-old Jeremy Tarver.

Both perpetrators fit in that category of "children shot with guns" that Rosie O'Donnell is always bleating about. Rosie will surely bemoan the fate of the 17-year-old life cut short by a citizen acting in self-defense. I, on the other hand, am more concerned with the well-being of the citizen who was forced to kill to save his life and the lives of his coworkers.

Police say both robbers had rap sheets with offenses including false imprisonment, grand theft, cocaine possession, and lewd and lascivious acts on a child. The dead perpetrator had a criminal record stretching back to 1995, but the police apparently did not disclose his full record.

Of course, this all fits nicely with what the NRA has been saying right along. Most of the "children" killed by firearms are gang members and criminals. If Clinton/Gore really wanted to "save" these "children", the administration might start by locking them up for their crimes instead of returning them to the streets.

Kurt Amesbury, J.D.

Orlando Sentinel update