Wow. Old times.

Doesn't this sound weird now?

An Oakland County Sheriff's deputy stopped the man, Ricardo Chamblis, 58, after he turned out of a Kroger parking lot Monday at Wyoming and Eight Mile Road.

Police said Chamblis was driving on a suspended license.

The deputy brought the suspect back to his patrol car and patted him down before placing him in the vehicle, police said.

That's when the deputy found the suspect was illegally carrying a .32-caliber handgun, police said.

Police arrested Chamblis for carrying the gun and impounded his car.

This piece caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First, I've lived where people are relaxed about guns so long now that a newspaper article about a guy caught with a (snicker) .32 just strikes me as really funny. Not that the guy got busted, no, just that it was considered worth a news item.

But I shouldn't be surprised, because I used to live right there. In fact, I used to write for that paper. Seriously, The Royal Oak Daily Trib gave me my first column gig. Way the HELL back when. I'm a little surprised it's still in business.

Royal Oak is such a quaint place. I think it has to work at it, being bordered by Eight Mile Road and all. How often, these days, do you get to read tripe like this:

"Things like this are a reminder that to us that guns are always out there," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. "Typically, we find that people who are carrying guns illegally are doing other things as well."

Yeah, like driving their cars and not hurting anybody. I'd be interested to know what this poor guy was stopped for.