And I Swear that I Don't Have A Gun

I believe that Lucky Strike smokes are the very best of all smokes that you can smoke because it contains many fine tobaccos!

The above clip from the other day's hearing regarding gun violence is just odd to me, because I've never anticipated that I would be a young mom surrounded with screaming babies while multiple armed attackers are invading my home, because that is a thing that just doesn't really happen a whole hell of a lot. But also, I am a realist. My first line of defense is a door with a lock on it. If my attackers can knock down my door and are already armed--I'm probably dead, aren't I? Because I would have to go for a gun, and I'd have to get ready to shoot it, and I'm not walking around my house strapped and loaded all the time.

Is Gayle Trotter an ex-gangster? Did she rat on the wrong people? Is she part of some kind of illicit deal gone bad, that she thinks the day will come that she has to defend herself and a house full of screaming babies against multiple armed assailants? Because I will testify that this is not a normal expectation that most women should have. We womenfolk are generally far more likely to be assaulted by people we know than random strangers, and we're even more likely to be killed with a gun if we live in a household with a gun in it.

I don't fear my gun-owning husband, per se. I am physically taller and weigh more than him, and have a little more experience with hand-to-hand fighting, although he is significantly stronger than me. I do fear his gun, though. I would fear it in my hands--the hands of a person with poor eyesight and bad hand-eye coordination. I have shot a .22 handgun and BB rifles. I seriously suck.  I have no earthly concept of "aim".  I know for sure in a firefight, my reaching for a weapon would be reaching for my death, because nothing good could come of it. In case of  any assault, I would rely on: a door with a stout lock, calling 911, my winning personality, and as a very last resort, probably physical violence.

I don't think I have to be a fantastic shot or to have named my weapons or whatever to own a piece of this conversation.  I know my dodgy knees don't run fast and I'd always rather trust my words than my anger. This woman's advertisement for the AR-15 to correct the bad press it has gotten of late has absolutely nothing to do with any reality I could point to from my experience. Nancy Lanza's AR-15 didn't help her any when it found its way into her son's hands, and there is all the explanation I think we need. Freedom is a double-edged sword--you want a right to own a killing machine--fine! Take responsibility to lock that thing up until it's killday, and be aware that someone very well could call killday on you before you could ever reach your weapon.  Because you can't live strapped. No human should ever have to.

But if we could only get rid of guns--what then would we see? No more Columbines or Sandy Hooks. No more 500 gun violence deaths in Chicago; a little less fear. I think that risk is well worth it.