When I was a kid, Mom had a little pearl-handled pistol that she kept in her top dresser drawer. I wasn’t supposed to know where it was — but I did. And sometimes when Mom and Dad were in the yard I would sneak into their room, take the gun out and play with it because it was prettier than any toy I owned.
I don’t know if it was loaded, because I never pulled the trigger. It may have had a safety that would have kept it from firing if I had pulled the trigger, but I don’t know. I just pointed it here and there and pretended I was shooting bad guys. I squinted one eye and stuck my other eye into the end of the barrel to see what it looked like down there.
And then I put the pistol back exactly where I found it, so Mom and Dad wouldn’t know that I knew where they kept it. As long as they didn’t move it to a more secure place, I could play with it again some other time.
Decades later, as Dad lay on his deathbed, he ordered my older brother Bill to destroy that pistol.
“I’ll take it to the police station tomorrow,” Bill said.
“No,” Dad said. “Destroy it. With a hammer. I want to see it.”
Bill did as Dad asked, and Dad died with his heart at peace when he saw the twisted metal, knowing that none of his young grandkids would ever find that gun and make a tragic game of it.
Dad owned guns all his life because he was an avid hunter and a crack shot at skeet and trap. I learned to shoot safely and responsibly at his hand, and we hunted together every fall and winter.
Dad is gone now, and his guns went to my brother Bill and me. Although I inherited half of Dad’s many guns, they are all kept at Bill’s house because he has a locking gun safe and I do not.
Any gun kept at my house is stored separately from its ammunition, which is always kept under lock and key.
I own a shotgun, because someday I may want to shoot a pheasant or a rabbit again.
I own rifles, because someday I may want to shoot a deer.
I do not own a pistol, because my fear of being attacked by invaders is less than my fear that such a weapon is far more likely to kill me or someone I love, as statistics prove.
And I sure as hell do not own an assault rifle with high-capacity magazines, because I have no desire to shoot large numbers of human beings in a military-style engagement, which is the only reason to own a gun like that.
I once was an NRA member back in the 70s, when that organization was opposed to military-style weapons and wanted primarily to guarantee that Americans would still be free to reasonably enjoy their Second Amendment rights with reasonable weapons. I left the NRA a long time ago, once their leaders embraced wide-open gun ownership that even most current NRA members disagree with.
A few weeks ago, on the heels of senseless massacres in Dayton and El Paso, I wrote a column that questioned gun laws that protect our “right” to own weapons of mass destruction, like AK47s with high-capacity magazines. While most reader responses agreed with my opinion, one letter from Cindy D suggested that the answer to gun violence was still more guns.
“Take guns away from citizens,” she wrote, “and only the criminals…and government will have guns. No thanks.”
I won’t quote her further, because it was just more of the mindless NRA quacking points you already know — notions that miss the essential point that even our military and law – enforcement community want military-style weapons to be out of the hands of private citizens.
The Second Amendment begins with the words: “A well-regulated Militia….” It is significant that our Founding Fathers spoke of gun regulations at the very start of their thoughts on gun rights. But you won’t hear the NRA remind you of that.
I thanked Cindy D for her email. I had said my point; she had said hers. Case closed, I thought.
But then today I got a note from Bob M, who also lives in Sun City.
He said: “Our son was killed in July, 1989, because our across-the-street neighbor had a loaded unsecured firearm in his basement. His 10-year-old son shot and killed our 11-year-old son. Parents and grandparents need to ask if there are firearms in houses where their children and grandchildren play. It can save a life.”
Bob went on: “We would have a much better world if we would concentrate on prevention, rather than offering thoughts and prayers after people have lost their lives. We can have reasonable gun control without impinging on any rights. Let no one misunderstand. Guns actually do kill people. That is what they are designed to do.”
Bob and his wife lost their son forever because of a tragic kids’ game with adult toys. More than sixty years ago, I would have been that kid — but for the grace of God.
I played with Mom’s gun. I survived. My friends survived because….
Well, just because.
And that was just a pretty pistol. Imagine how much fun an assault weapon would be to play with! And then imagine that toy in the hands of a disturbed adult.
Yes, we have rights. We should preserve them, as Cindy D writes.
But we also have responsibilities to ensure that our rights don’t rob others of their fundamental right to be alive. And those responsibilities require thoughtful regulation, as our Founding Fathers wrote.
And if you don’t get that yet, then you should spend a lot of your time on thoughts and prayers that you won’t have to live the rest of your life as Bob M and his wife do, with only aging photographs to remind you of your child who will never have the chance to get even a day older than he was on the playful day he died.
Author, musician and storyteller TR Kerth is a retired teacher who has lived in Sun City Huntley since 2003. Contact him at trkerth@yahoo.com. Can’t wait for your next visit to Planet Kerth? Then get TR’s book, “Revenge of the Sardines,” available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online book distributors.
