6/11/2008

God Wanted me to Kill, But...

Reynolds links to a story about "open carry" of pistols and how little objection there seems to be from locals. OK, I am for the widest interpretation of the Second Amendment....as an abstraction. As an ideal. But then I ask myself this one: I was an actor for fifteen or so years and I want to tell you that most of my friends are so fucking loony that it should be a felony for them to carry a cap pistol. I have been in mental hospitals three times and had been on the verge of terrible violence twice. I know I'm a fuck up and that is the main reason there are no guns in my house and never ever on my person.

A true story from long ago: During one of the riots here I had a hundred and twenty reels of a movie I owned stored in a trucking warehouse located at the edge of the riot. I felt that my entire future was at risk by having my movie stored down there in the burning riot area and I impulsively decided to drive down to the storage facility and pick the fucking things up. I had a hand gun in the closet and I loaded it and placed it in the glove box before heading into the riot area. The known body count at the time I left my house was at least ten. So I'm at a stop sign ten or so blocks from my destination and three black guys appear on the corner across the street yelling racist curses and threats. One of the guys stepped off the curb and was headed toward me. Now, the choices I had at the time were to run the red light (there was zero traffic), turn right and take off, run the light and turn left and take off. The fourth alternative was to pull the gun and shoot the motherfucker like he deserved. I pulled the gun, lowered the window, and pointed it. I dared the guys to do anything and told them I'd shoot. The scary thing is that I wanted to shoot; I wanted trouble; I wanted to show them. Result? Thank God the guy coming at me shit his pants and ran as did his pals so "nothing" happened. Had I shot the motherfucker I'd have gone to jail; had I killed him I'd have gone to jail for a very long time.

That's why I say I'm for the Second Amendment as an abstraction, but a maniac like me should be prevented by law from owning or carrying one.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's why most liberals oppose gun rights. They don't trust themselves because they are always so angry. Think Alec Baldwin.

bobn said...

Since you've been institutionalized, you problably can't legally own a gun. And I agree that you have the choice and you've probably made the right one *for you* - but don't take the choice away from the rest of us who do wish to be able to defend ourselves.

And what do you think those guys did after you protected yourself? They might have learned their lesson, but they may just as well have gone and found weaker prey.

The media was full of stories about shop-owners using guns to defend their stores from looters.

Many, many people have used and continue to use guns for self-defense - see Civilian Gun Self Defense Blog.

See also This study excerpt:

"By this time there seems little legitimate scholarly reason to doubt that defensive gun use is very common in the U.S., and that it probably is substantially more common than criminal gun use. This should not come as a surprise, given that there are far more gun-owning crime victims than there are gun-owning criminals and that victimization is spread out over many different victims, while offending is more concentrated among a relatively small number of offenders."