MY NAME IS JOE. I'M A GUN ADDICT.

LOOK AT THEM.

Shaking. Sweating. Pacing.

Unable to concentrate. Unable to focus on anything other than . . . their next gun buy.

Pennsylvania's gun addicts are already going through withdrawal, as the planned four-day halt on gun sales to allow the state to update its computerized background checks grows closer.

The Pennsylvania Instant Check System is used by gun store owners to do state and federally required criminal background checks on potential customers. It will be closed for upgrading from 6 p.m. Sept. 2 to noon Sept. 6. That means that no guns can be sold.

Gun store owners are hot. The shutdown coincides with the beginning of the early dove and goose hunting season, a popular time - at least in some parts of the state -for gun sales.

One Harrisburg lawmaker, Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, is also in a snit. He's claming that this is an attempt by Philadelphia liberals to limit the rights of gun owners.

The outcry has us a little worried about just how stable some of these gun addicts are. We've seen actual junkies more behaved than this when they hear they can't get their hands on their stuff.

But four lousy days with no guns? And with plenty of warning so those who want to buy new hunting rifles can plan ahead?

Gov. Rendell is already beginning to back-pedal, ordering a committee to review alternate dates for shutting down the system. We hope he stands firm.

Maybe he can suggest that those four days should be spent productively. Instead of sitting around moping, why not take a field trip? Ride through some of the state's larger cities and their suburban towns, where gun violence has grown. Let's call it a reality check. Some of these guns used to kill are on the street, thanks to straw purchasers who patronize the state's gun stores, and then sell the guns illegally.

Tomorrow, during a national day of protest against illegal guns, there will be a "lie-in" in front of Sen. Arlen Specter's house in East Falls. Thirty-two people, representing the number killed in the Virginia Tech shooting, will be dressed in black and lie down for three minutes, the time it took Seung-Hui Cho to do his sick work.

A few days later, the four-day halt on gun sales in Pennsylvania begins.

We feel safer already. *