And I have no desire to pry your firearm from your cold dead fingers, but I'd just as soon not have to pry it from the cold dead fingers of your child.
In the last three weeks the local news has had some horrific stories. The first was of an eight year old who took a gun from his mother, who he was visiting. He took it for "protection" because he was being bullied. The gun was obviously loaded with a round in the chamber because at some point he jostled his backpack and it went off, critically injuring a classmate. The mother and her boyfriend, both with previous felony convictions, are being charged with a felony.
A few days ago the parents of a five year old and seven year old left the children in the car to do a quick errand. The father is a police officer. The children found a gun in the car--not clear whether it was the father's service weapon--and the five year old shot the seven year old who later died.
Last night a couple stopped at a gas station and convenience store after midnight. The girlfriend went into the store while the man pumped gas. The three year old in the car got out of the car seat, found the gun left under the seat and shot himself. He died at the scene.
Children killed or seriously injured = 3; Dangerous Intruders stopped = 0
I suppose it could be argued what is the point of having a pistol if you don't keep it ready for use against those intruders. I do know that when I learned that my son had his Glock in the house without being in a lockbox or with a trigger lock I gave him the money to get a gun safe. I had visions of my granddaughters being an item in the news, despite being assured that they would "never do that."
I'm not anti-gun. I've owned guns, but never a pistol, which is basically a weapon for killing people. I mean really, lets be honest about this. The purpose of a pistol is to kill people. You can make all the "sport" arguments you want. That is the purpose. You can make all the "use it to threaten" arguments as well, but drawn a pistol is intended to be shot, shot it is intended to kill, or you shouldn't carry one.
I've enjoyed shooting and I'm a halfway decent shot, but if I did own a pistol, I'd leave it locked up at the range. Things get bad enough that I need firearms to protect me and mine then we're all toast anyway. Besides a side by side double would make more sense--easier to reload the cartridges and less likely to break down.
But the stats aren't in favor of the pistol owner. You're much more likely to get shot with your own weapon, shoot a family member, or have a family member shoot themselves or someone else than you are to actually use it against an intruder. I'm fond of the story I saw somewhere several years ago about a man who had a gun and surprised an armed intruder. They were in a small room and both men fired repeatedly, neither one hitting their target. I think the intruder fainted from shock. At any rate they caught him on the premises. Supposedly there was some underwear to be laundered. Could have been worse, much worse.
I really don't want to see another news story like those I mentioned at the start of this post, but with our wild west mentality I guess I am likely to. So you go ahead and make sure your bears are all armed and ready.
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