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StrangerThan -> RE: Why I Carry A Gun (12/30/2008 5:41:06 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: colouredin
quote:
ORIGINAL: thishereboi
Well then it's a really good thing you live there and I live here. I like the fact that I can own a gun and protect myself. There are some right prats in the world.
And I cant think of a time in mine, my family or my friends lives where they needed a gun to protect themselves, what is it that you are protecting yourself against?
I shot a man when I was 13. I was home with my younger brother. My parents were... somewhere else, visiting my father's brother in another state probably. By that age I'd started staying home when they went rather than suffer the all day boredom of sitting and listening to grown-ups talk. My brother was 9 at the time. It was dark. The man trying to get into our house knew we were there. I know that for a fact because the first sighting was at the back door. My brother heard a noise at the door and opened it. Fortunately, we had a screen door that was locked. My brother ran. I went to do the door and slammed it shut, locked it. The man broke through the screen door but couldn't get the main door open. He was drunk. That much was obvious.
We got on the phone, called everyone we could think of. Uncles, neighbors, police. The police arrived 35 minutes later. My uncle had been there for about 15 minutes by the time they came. In the 20 minutes it took someone to get there, the man had gone to a window, broken it and was trying to climb in. It was one of those roll out windows so he was having trouble. Still he was making progress. I'd been taught to shoot early in life. I loaded the shotgun, stepped out on the side porch and shot him in the ass as it was about the only thing left outside that I could see. What followed was almost laughable. My dog decided to show up about that time and took exception to some guy hanging half in, half out of the house. He latched on to one of his legs. The man finally extricated himself and staggered off into the woods with my dog all over him. A few minutes later my uncle showed up. About 15 minutes later the police showed up.
You don't make the best decisions at 13. I supposed I could have let him finish shrugging himself in the window then taken my brother out the front or back door and headed for a neighbors house - but none of them had answered the phone. I suppose we could have just ran. I doubt the man could have caught us.
But it was my fucking house. He was in his 30's. He knew better. The fact that he was drunk was probably both the reason he was doing what he was doing, and the thing that saved my brother at the door when he first opened it. But being drunk is no excuse. I had no remorse at shooting him. I suffered no trauma, no nightmares, and I didn't need mamma stroking on me afterwards. I'd have done it again the next night if I'd had to.
I've owned guns most of my life, but not for protection. I own them because I like them in the way someone else might like to look at old coins or old stamps. There's a certain beauty about them that's much more functional and practical than coins or stamps or arrowheads. I'd use them for protection if I needed to. I've not felt that need since that night when I was 13. The truth is a lot of people who own them know almost nothing about them. People don't hunt any more. It's not a right of passage for an older member of the family to take the young ones and teach them how to carry them, how to be safe, when to shoot and how to shoot. The first thing that comes to my mind when I see a news story about some kid shooting himself or a friend accidentally is that the parent should be punished for not providing that education, that sense of responsibility and respect for them.
Shrug.
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