NFOA MEMBERS FORUM
General Categories => General Firearm Discussion => Topic started by: wusker on May 31, 2013, 03:37:23 PM
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I wanted to share this story. I work for Time warner cable as a Preventative maintenance technician; basically I am the guy in the bucket truck that works on plant issues/outages and works too much on-call.
A couple of weeks ago a line of ours was damaged and a few of my co-workers had to put a temporary line up in between two telephone poles, well they forgot to do something which caused an outage but only for 3 customers. When I pull up to this house a woman in her mid 40's meets me at my truck and would like a business card so she can have her boss have contact with someone to confirm an outage since she works from home.
She is very friendly and I explain what the issue is and I get the work done within 20 mins and she is back online, well while I am at the top of the pole she decides to chit chat. I notice her tile work on her patio and some spare 18" tiles and make a comment that I used to be a tile setter in california, she explains that around the time her husband was killed at Von Maurs she worked for a tile distributor and she and her boyfriend had installed it.
Now I moved here in 08' and was not aware of the incident so I asked about Von Maurs and she explains what happened, Once she was done explaining I asked a few questions such as, "was he mentally ill?" answer was yes. "im guessing he was a normal homicidal maniac and took his own life when he was done taking innocent lives?" yup. At this point her voice began to crack as she explained her son had just the other day moved all her husbands belongings out of storage, and the damage that the cowardly monster had done. and all I wanted to do was give her a hug and make the pain go away, but nothing I could have done would heal the wounds left. At this point it seemed good to change the subject for her emotionally but she continued on and composed herself, so I then figured I would ask 1 more question "So being a victim of gun violence what are you feelings on the current 2nd amendment rights, and the gun debate ?" answer was, I just dont see why anyone needs an assault rifle. "well was this guys gun his or stolen?" he stole it.
At this point I figured it would be best not to press this person on gun control or ask any more open ended questions as it would solve nothing and her son came home and gauging from the pictures of the victims he is the spitting image of his old man, plus the son seemed a little apprehensive about a man talking to his mother. topics were switched and we spent some time talking about their garden and politics. I guess my point was to show even though my intentions were honest we as proponents of gun rights can never forget the hurt that can be caused by these rights. It was my first time ever speaking with someone who has lost a loved one to gun violence, she seemed like a very sweet woman and her son a smart kid.
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we as proponents of gun rights can never forget the hurt caused my [sic] these rights.
You are invited to re-visit this statement, re-consider it very thoughtfully, and then decide if you really do mean to say what you have said.
sfg
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we as proponents of gun rights can never forget the hurt that can be caused by these rights.
Edited for grammatical error, and changed the wording; context is still the same. As far as my feelings go....well ill tell you, the freedom of speech can be hurtful, freedom of religion can be hurtful and the freedom to keep and bear arms can be hurtful. Is it worth it?! HELL YES. If one of my kids goes wacko and shoots someone would I change my opinion on my rights? Absolutely not. But there would be emotional pain involved. None of these rights should ever be taken for granted.
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Everybody has to blame actions on something. Most of the time they blame it on the wrong thing because it’s not politically correct, hip, in style, or whatever.
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So, you are saying it is the right to self defense and to bear arms for that defense that caused this woman to be hurt and her husband murdered, because that is the way it reads to me
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I see what your saying but that wasn't my intention. I was only portraying a conversation and my point was no matter how badly I wanted to discuss the 2nd amendment with this woman, nothing I would have said would have made a bit of difference because the gun to her was what caused her pain not the person behind it. All I really got from the conversation was a closeup of how gun violence affects a person and changed this persons viewpoint.
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I just took it as good all around food for thought and a chance to consider (however misplaced or projected) other perspectives. Thanks for sharing.
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Assigning blame is always the first choice of those who refuse to take responsibility for their actions, usually expressed by "it's not your/my fault!". Few take responsibility for their own actions any more.
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Assigning blame is always the first choice of those who refuse to take responsibility for their actions, usually expressed by "it's not your/my fault!". Few take responsibility for their own actions any more.
You're absolutely right, GreyGeek. Some of us have chosen to take our personal safety very seriously, while others think that the average response of 23 minutes of 911 is good enough. Not to mention, when they show up on the scene, it might take them 30 minutes or longer to figure out what is going on and stop the slaughter. Not saying that if I was there with a gun I could have made a difference, but maybe changed the odds not so much in his favor. No one can really say what they would do in that situation, but one thing is for sure, if Von Maur had signage on the door, I would have made the right decision by not entering a slaughter zone. It's real easy for the anti-gun people to blame the actions of the people that choose to do wrong on those people that choose to do right
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Everyone knows someone who's been badly injured or killed in a vehicle accident, yet somehow we all get thru the day without loathing mechanized transportation.
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Similar but sort of unrelated to your post, the kid that did the shooting went to my school for a year or so and I had a few classes with him. He used to tell us he wanted to be a cop when he grew up so he could shoot people... I guess that didnt raise any red flags to the teachers or anything. Its weird looking back to highschool and thinking about it all, actually knowing one of these people. All those little things they may have said or did that you never thought anything about, suddenly seem so obvious.