I’ve never owned a gun.
It’s not that I’m opposed to them.
In some cases, guns have saved lives.
For example, a single mother home
alone with her two little children,
and a man begins breaking into
her apartment. She’s yells I have
a gun. He yells I have one too.
Then the shots: bang! bang! bang!
The intruder dies. She lives.
The gun certainly saved her, and
I believe the intruder would have
raped and probably murdered her,
if she hadn’t had a gun.
I’ve thought about a gun for self
protection as I grew older and less
able to defend myself.
But there are many possible hazards
involved with owning a gun.
If you shoot someone in what you
think is self defense and you are wrong,
you go to prison, and rules about gun
ownership and self defense are more
complex than I think most would imagine.
Plus, aside from the rules, If you pull
out your gun in traffic to shut a road raged
maniac down, not intended to shoot him,
and he pulls out a gun too.
What started as only a threat to shut him
down, could end with one person dead
and the other in prison.
Beyond that, I just didn’t feel fearful
or in danger enough to warrant owning
a gun.
But were I receiving death threats, I’d
surely consider getting one to possibly
save my life.
But more because I’d be pissed off
that some asshole thought he could
threaten my life and get away with it,
and as if the threat would cower me.
Bob Boyd
