Not long after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer my father made me promise him before both our wives not to sell the cache of guns I would soon inherit from him. “At least not immediately,” he said. “They’re an investment,” he said. He said one day, just maybe, I might regret not having an arsenal with which to defend myself. I don’t know if those were the exact words he said and I’m sure they were interrupted by the waiter coming to take our order, but that was the gist of it.