guns

[DCJenn]

OK, while I'm sitting here, online, innocently typing my left leaning political propoganda whilst drinking a lovely Spanish Rioja, There Are Guns Being Shot.

I live in a pretty decent neighborhood so I find this exceptionally annoying and to be honest, somewhat distressful. Paritularly since guns are illegal in the District of Columbia. (we have no votes in Congress, but dammit, we should be allowed to make decisions about our own city...)

So, for those of you who actually own guns, and the thought truly baffles my mind, can you explain why? Because personally, I can't imagine that my owning a gun would deter in any way the guy across the street who is shooting away. Nor would I imagine that it would deter him from entering my home and shooting me, and I also am 90% sure that although the one time I shot a gun I hit everything I was supposed to be shooting at, I'd probably miss and the Bad Guy (assumptions of maleness, apologies to the guys) would off me anyway.

Explain, people...

Jenn

[mommax3]

I am totally with you on this one, Jenn. No guns here, and there never will be.

Sally

[Vanquisher]

http://www.amsa.org/programs/gpit/gunviolence.cfm

Here is an amsa article regarding guns. I am completely against having guns in my house. I grew up in Utah, a gun-toting very republican state. My dh thinks that guns aren't so bad, but he also respects my desire never to have one in our home. It isn't that big of a deal to him, and he has never been able to convince me of a good reason to have one.

My IL's both have a concealed weapon permit and FIL goes hunting every year. FIL has a bumper sticker on his truck that says "Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my handgun." That's retarded backwards logic to me.

The only time anyone has ever broken into their house, all that was stolen was a gun.

As far as statistics go, I have seen statistics slanting both ways. Whatever. The fact remains, I believe my family is in more danger having a firearm in the house than they are without, and we will never have one.

It will never be logical to me. Dh had a cousin who either A)commited suicide with a rifle, or B) accidentally shot and killed himself with a rifle. Either scenario is not something I find appealing.

I have been a depressed teenager, and I wouldn't want access to a firearm around one, let alone small, curious children. It's a recipe for disaster if you ask me.

My uncle's parents were murdered in their home during a home invasion robbery. The intruders did not expect them to be home, and when they were, murdered them with a gun they found in their home.

I do not and will not ever understand why people choose to keep guns in their homes, and it scares the hell out of me that my children may be in homes where there are firearms present - like the IL's.

[Sheherezade]

We had a scary gun incident when we lived in Baltimore. Good neighborhood, beautiful day and one angry man gets in a fender bender and starts screaming and firing a gun randomly at the gathered crowd. I actually *ran* from the scene carrying both kids. It freaks me out what anger+available firearms can equal. (And let's not forget alcohol!) Luckily the police arrived.

I hope you are safe Jenn. Is this guy just a yahoo shooting targets?

I can see that a gun might be handy in a situation with total anarchy (New Orleans, anyone?) - but I don't live on the frontier. I think the chances of those circumstances coming to pass here are far lower than the chances of a gun in my home being used against me, by me (look out cheating spouse ), or by a depressed member of my family. I'll take the risk and remain gun free.

Having walked into an officer with a weapon drawn on a suspect in my own yard, I can say that I do NOT want one in my house. Even someone trained to use one is put in a dangerous situation when they draw it. because you never know what will happen, if the person you are holding it on has one of their own, or if someone else will interfere. I swear, the cop looked more scared and anxious than the guy he was pointing at.

Jenn, have you been in DC on a holiday? its mighty popular to fire into the air especially on New Years and the 4th. This happens even in the most genteel neighborhoods.

Surprise - not a gun lover here. Dear old dad is though - and I grew up with rifles (antique but working) just hanging on the wall in the family room. I have no idea why my mom allowed it; I suppose firing a rifle is trickier than a handgun, and they "trusted" me not to be that stupid. I don't remember any particular lectures involving: don't touch that it could kill you. Strangely enough, when my dad left when I was 11, I asked him to leave the guns . My mom left them up for a month or so, then took them down and put them in the basement - I never noticed. Eventually they made their way to my dad's new house.

I agree with the logic stated earlier: I would probably miss, it would probably be used against me, scared to death of the kids getting to it AND if it's properly locked / dismantled so that the kids can't get to it, then what good is it to me in an intruder situation.

My dad has quite a few guns (he lives on 100+ acres in rural Ohio and tries to be a redneck despite his New England prep school education), but his wife has FINALLY been able to make him lock the cabinet. He keeps the key in the lock, but my kids are too short to reach it .... for now.

I hope you're safe Jenn.

[SuzySunshine]

I too grew up with guns in my house, part of that is b/c my father carries one for his job but he always kept it where we couldn't get to it. We could have gotten to the rest of his guns if we wanted to but I guess since we grew up with them it wasn't a big deal to us. He now has a locked gun safe in a locked closet so that his grandkids can't get near them and he keeps his amunition is a seperate closet so it is all safe.

With that said I will never have one in my house and my DH agrees with me on that. He didn't grow up with guns and our parents all agree there isn't any reason to have them. My dad uses his for game hunting and target practice, besides the one he carries daily.

I hope you are safe as well, I can't imagine what I'd do if I heard gun fire in my neighborhood.

[Meenah]

I hate them and would never have one. When my girls were young and started to have playdates that was always one of my questions, do you have a gun in the house and is it locked up? You only have to see one "oops I thougt it was unloaded" in the ER to know what I am talking about.
Luanne

Well....I had always said I had would never have them in my house. Never say never, right?
I grew up with my dad having guns in the house (up and out of the way but not in a safe and I'm pretty sure unloaded). Have shot a gun some but I get a bit nervous handling a loaded gun.

But. We had an absolutely crazy neighbor in Denver. A gets so mad his neck veins are bulging as he is yelling at a cop sort of crazy neighbor. We had a "conflict" with him because he thought it was a-ok for his 11-piece band to practice from 8pm on while our windows shook and the baby was kept awake. Over 5 months I had lots of phone calls with him, our community police officer, the city department that handled noise pollution, and the non-emergency police number. Because he wasn't breaking down our door, 911 would refer me to the non-emergency number and the police would come 2-4 hours later, or never, after I called. I truly did not feel safe with him next door and did not feel that the police would adequately protect me and my child should something happen. I was especially concerned on the nights my husband was on call. I ended up with a pistol that I kept in a password protected gun safe. Had I done it right, I would have taken the gun to a shooting range to practice and feel a little more comfortable with it but I could have and would have used it if I needed to. I don't have it any more.

Then, after my FIL died, we inherited over 15 guns -- shotguns, rifles, pistols. (The funny thing is that a certain relative drove them from Wisconsin to Oregon for us ). Note to any potential lurking wackos: we don't have them anymore. For a while though, we were fully armed! Well, they were never loaded.....At one point DH had most of them laid out on the garage floor. We had our oldest daughter take a look at them, ask questions, etc because I think it is important for her to know what they look like and see someone handle them properly. Some of them were antiques and it was interesting to hear more about them from people who knew about that stuff.

I guess I'm not really anti-gun but don't see a need for automatic weapons, cop-killing bullets, etc. Legislation against those is fine with me. And no NRA bumper-stickers on my car.

[Phoebe]

Non-gun toting individual here. We lived a couple houses down from a busy street and about a mile from the ghetto in East Cleveland where you wouldn't want to get lost. Kids regularly shot beebee guns at the stop sign two houses down and it freaked me out having a little one running around.

DH and I aren't into hunting or anything to do with guns. Even if they were locked up my 4 yr old would find a way to locate it and my 2 yr old would probably throw it down the stairs. I think my father had a shot gun in our house while I was growing up following the Vietnam War. Along with the gun possession, came a marijuana habit which I recently found growing in his landscaping! Nice family!

Jennifer

[DCJenn]

First, We're fine, it's not that unusual as we live across the street from several low income housing projects. There are usually police there once a day or so- either the Housing Authority Police or the Metro DC police. So from that respect, I'm sure they're all well aware of who the bad eggs are.

We get Capitol Police drive throughs here because although Hastert doesn't live here anymore, his Chief of Staff does. Plus we have a few Senators and Justice Souter lives around the corner. So...you'd think that we'd be able to have bullet free evenings. (FYI- the murder rate in DC was one reason why the Washington Bullets became the Washington Wizards)

I'm not sure that the education aspect flies with gun ownership. At least here, there are several Senators (Allen and Hutchinson) who are trying to amend the DC law so that they can carry in the city, (Virginia and Texas, FYI) which steams me for a whole lot of reasons.

New Orleans was chaos, thats for sure. I'm still not sure that having a gun would have kept me any safer though.

Hmmm, any more thoughts?

Jenn

Not too many educated and informed people tote guns.

Oh, I think is a bit of a generalization. Maybe it's my cowboy upbringing in the wild west of Colorado (I'm seriously exagerrating) but most of the people I knew who owned guns were not the wifebeater undershirt, generic beer drinking, cars on the lawn sorts of folks. Ditto for the hunters. But, yes, some idiots do own guns and some of them live in the city.

[mommax3]

Oh, I totally bet some senators carry guns. I can't say that I blame them, either.

I don't believe the education angle flies, either, but I do believe it depends on background and where you grew up. My father-in-law is a veterinarian and the Dean of the Vet School at Kansas State University. Before he got into administration, he was a veterinary oncologist and is still recognized as a leader in that field. He is seriously one of the smartest men I know.....and he has several rifles and guns. They are kept unloaded, but not always locked up.....unless we are visiting. (Although....they are kept in a vault room that is in their basement, so if you don't have the key, you can't get in there. They just aren't in a cabinet.) He and I have had several discussions regarding hunting......I just don't see the attraction in setting out to spend all day trying to kill something. From his perspective, growing up in semi-rural KS (as did my MIL) and dealing with the life/death of animals from a young age, it is just part of life, and the biggest reason he hunts is that he loves to see his dogs point, etc. (I don't know all the terminology!) He only hunts birds. I could never do it, but I don't begrudge him the right. AND if a disaster hits my area or this country and things all over break down like they did in New Orleans......we will haul ass to KS!

I guess my point of view aligns with Nellie's......no one needs automatic weapons or bullets that are made to intentionally cause excessive injury if they hit someone. I would never support the NRA. But I do believe that individuals have the right to bear arms.

Sally

[DCJenn]

Annie-

I have NO doubt that some of these politicos would like to pack heat...

Seriously, as crazy as it sounds. I think some of them secretly want to be police or FBI or Secret Service.

Now, I will admit that when Tim the Secret Service agent is walking his dog Tag at midnight while I'm out with Petey, it's nice to know that we have lots of resources available should one of the shooting crazies come on into the courtyard. But, he's a trained secret service agent who also has access to all kinds of other supoprt, too. (and how much of a discount do you think he got for buying the house next door to Hastert? I haven't had the guts to ask)

People automatically assume that Rick has weapons, too. Right, they regularly arm pediatricians for that dangerous Metro ride to Walter Reed!

Jenn

I could never own a gun. My uncle is a retired CHP officer and once let me hold his unloaded gun. Holding the gun scared me to death even though it was unloaded. I also had a classmate in high school (15 yo) who was killed when he and a friend were playing with a shotgun. Guns just give me the willies!

Living in the South, where many people are gun owners, I am already worrying about letting my son go over to friends' homes when he is old enough. I'll just have to do what Luanne did....ask if there are any guns in the house and if they are locked up. Even if the parents say their guns are locked up, I don't think I would let him go over to their house because you just never know.

I do have a friend whose husband is a police officer in So Cal. There have been times when she and her husband would go out to dinner or shopping and would run into someone he once gave a ticket to or arrested and they had confrontations. And since they lived in a relatively small town, it would be easy for the "bad guys" to find out where they lived. Because of this, my friend took a training course and started carrying a gun in her purse and hid it next to her bed when her husband was working nights. Even though I would never keep a gun in my house, I can't really blame her for having one. Of course, when she had her first child, she kept the gun locked up. I do have to say that, although I trust my friend 100%, I will never let my son play at her house unsupervised. I just wouldn't want to take any chances.