Re: The problem with the legal system is there are too many lawyers involved.
Dravyk...people own guns for a lot of reasons. Self-defense is just one of them. Others are collectors and collect them with the same headset as collectors of anything else. Others like to aim at targets and increase their proficiency at hitting said target, the same way people would play any other sport. My father was a skeet shooter. He also owned a handgun that looked like something a cowboy would carry. (I only saw it a few times, as we were raised to know that the penalty of opening a drawer belonging to someone else's dresser was punishable by death.)
When I married, I discovered - somewhat to this little former hippie's horror - that my husband owned a .22 revolver. He used to "plink" at cans. That was it. He was a helluva threat to cans, but nothing else. It was loaded and in the top of the closet until the night I almost shot him. He was working one of those horrible schedules that kept changing. I heard a sound in the middle of the night, was alone in bed, and thought he was at work. I got up and went for the gun. I had a baby in a crib in the other room, and yes, I would have used the gun. Thankfully, my husband in the bathroom cleared his throat, a most recognizable sound. I put the gun back, got back into bed and had a total nervous breakdown. The only other time I've ever had it in my hand was when we drove from Kentucky to California and the car had the total rudeness to break down in Junction City, Kansas. My husband had to go into redneck bar to use the phone to call triple A for a tow truck. He took the gun, still in it's...leather outfit...holster?...and said "here. Hold this, just in case." I held it, my heart attempting to hammer out of my chest. Ever since then, the gun has been kept unloaded, made unusable by a plastic thing that would have to be cut off.
I guess all of this is meant to show that the times I've had a gun in my hand I would have used it. I would have protected myself and my family. I would not have shot to wound, I'm too smart for that. My side of the story would be the only side available to the police.
I won't litter. I don't break the speed limit. I'm a nice, law-abiding person. I understand the people who keep a gun for protection, though. I'm not defending it as a good idea - nobody who came that close to shooting her own husband and turns a gun into a useless paperweight because she has kids could possibly defend having a gun as a good idea. I'm just saying that I understand them...and hope that one of their curious children don't end up accidentally shooting themselves or their friends.
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