The first firearm I purchased was just because. The year was 1993. I was young, had money burning in my pocket, and my buddy needed cash. And so, for a couple hundred bucks I owned a 9MM handgun, which immediately went under the bed, mostly forgotten, a totem to my spendthrift ways.
Another 15 years would pass before that investment paid off.
When we moved to Los Angeles in 2003, the gun came with me, and I again slipped it under the bed because that is where it had always been. Five more years passed.
I don’t want to say that our Los Angeles neighborhood changed, because I don’t know that for a fact. Maybe our luck changed. All I know is that things went to hell pretty quickly.
I worked out of the house. My wife commuted. It was February, so it was dark when she got home. One night, before she had even taken off her coat, we heard gunshots followed by a car crash. Trust me, only in movies do people confuse a car backfiring with gunshots.
I’ll never forget the conversation with 9-1-1.
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3 comments:
Three years ago an intruder walked into my house at 2 in the afternoon.
My wife (68) and myself (71) were both upstairs. Me in the bedroom, her in the shower.
The intruder was obviously drunk and would not leave the house as I called out to him as he was standing in my living room.
I got my wife with me and we locked the bedroom door and called 911 as we heard him begin to come up the stairs.
NEVER have I felt so helpless to protect my wife. A good fight would probably give me a heart attack.
He went back downstairs after trying the bedroom door.
Police arrived about 5 minutes (an eternity) later - in force - tackled him and arrested him in my living room.
We never felt the need for a gun. My wife was adamantly against it. I felt we needed it.
Two weeks later my new gun is deeply hidden from my wife and easily accessible to me if the situation arises again.
My wife has continually thanked me for "seeing it her way" and not buying a gun.
Hopefully she will never need to know that it exists.
I have bought several guns "illegally". I bought one rifle way back when I was 19-21 or so. Since then I became a "prohibited person". It had nothing to do with any violent crime, mental issues, or any of the things most people think of when they think of "prohibited people".
I bought them for self-defense and home defense. Thankfully, I have never had to use them and hope I never do. But if I, or the many others like me, had followed the law I and my family would be defenseless and at the mercy of those people who also have guns to do violent crime with.
I know I am not the only person to do this. My point? Guns are readily available to anyone. I am not a criminal per se but if I can purchase a gun, what makes anyone think that a violent criminal cannot?
Laws are only effective if and to those willing to obey them. They can pass gun laws until the cows come home. Do all the background checks they want. There will ALWAYS be a way around them and a market for those who cannot buy guns legally.
Some might not like this REALITY but that is just the way it is and has always been.
I didn't know birds sold guns
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