As we have progressed from using rock, club, hatchet, knife, sword, to pistol — which the National Rifle Association advises everyone should pack, along with our cellphone — we are becoming physically encumbered. It is a real nuisance.

Since new pistols will be made of plastic (to evade pesky magnetometers), why not combine pistol and phone into one device?

Apple could, say, get together with Smith and Wesson and establish a new company (how about Banana?) and make phones available from 9 mm to .357 calibers. In operation, with a single quick-draw holster, one could easily respond to important Twitter, Facebook, etc., nonsense and at the same time covertly maintain aim at scary-looking foreign persons.

A single pull of the trigger would conveniently start a video camera and call police and EMT. Many jobs in red states would be created for managing charging stations for batteries and bullets.

H. Richard Klatt, Sandy