Posted on 07/31/2007 4:11:14 PM PDT by DeFault User
1 less gun for grandkids to worry about DANNYE ROMINE POWELL "Maybe we should buy a gun," I told my husband.
As I waited for him to answer, I listened to the birds chirping. I looked toward the sky, hoping for rain.
"No, we shouldn't," he said finally.
"Listen to this," I said, picking up Sunday's paper. I read aloud from the front-page story, "Forced to Kill," about four Charlotte people who had each shot someone trying to protect themselves.
The killings were legal. Necessary. The police said so.
I could slip instantly into the shoes of one south Charlotte man, who woke to the sound of the doorbell seven years ago. When he heard loud banging, he grabbed a revolver and ran downstairs.
A young man had thrown an iron patio chair against the window, shattering the glass. The older man fired two safety shots. When the young man swung the chair again, the older man aimed a third time and fired, killing the intruder.
I could imagine us in the exact situation -- without a gun -- defenseless.
Not in my house
"Can't you see that happening to us?" I said."Sure, I can," my husband said. "But we have an alarm system. And we're not getting a gun."
"Your reason?"
"Two reasons," he said. "Our granddaughters."
That stopped me cold.
About 200 people in the United States kill someone each year in self-defense.
But how many die each year -- innocently -- from guns?
Let me tell you.
In the 10 years ending in 2006, 486 children under age 18 in North Carolina, alone, died from gun-related injuries.
Amazing the figure is that low, considering that 82,000 kids in this state are exposed each year to unsafely stored firearms.
Thanks to my husband's unruffled thinking, our grandchildren won't be among them -- not in our house.
Unforgettable near miss
Our conversation triggered a memory, one I usually manage to tamp down.
I was 9 years old, visiting a neighbor a year or so older, whose father had been a colonel in World War II.
Her mother ran out to the grocery store, leaving us alone for about half an hour.
As soon as she'd pulled away, my friend unearthed her father's gun -- a relic from the war -- ornate, as I recall. Official-looking, heavy.
It's not loaded, she said, pointing the gun at me.
We sat there, each of us cross-legged in our chair, about eight feet apart. She tried to squeeze the trigger.
I felt no fear. She'd said it wasn't loaded. Why doubt her?
She squeezed and squeezed, still pointing. The trigger didn't budge. When she heard her mother in the driveway, she ran to put the gun back.
My friend called the next day, tearful. Her father had found her out, and spanked her. The gun, she whispered, had been loaded after all.
I sat speechless, the phone to my ear.
She was lucky. I was luckier.
In our house, we'll remain unarmed.
Defenseless is better than discovering someone we love dead.
IN MY OPINION Dannye Romine Powell
I forgot about that little number. I like it. I have always said the mind of a liberal is similar to that of a 7 year old.
“Two reasons,”
You’re a liberal, and you’re an idiot.
“In the 10 years ending in 2006, 486 children under age 18 in North Carolina, alone, died from gun-related injuries.”
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics. This figure, part of an oft-repeated trend nation-wide, neglects all mention of the fact that the vast majority of these “gun-related injuries” are murders committed by young gang-bangers engaged in turf wars and a variety of criminal activities.
I'll bet the Doctor had an alarm too.
If you want to read statistics of how kids are killed accidentally or intentionally you can purchase a soft cover book from the National Safety Council called “Injury Facts”. It’s about $35. It usually runs one year behind so they can gather the facts and publish them. When I was the safety officer for a large company I would purchase it every year. Here’s their website address www.nsc.org. Accidental gun deaths for kids runs behind swimming pools usually, bicycles, sometimes baseball bats and hotdogs. If you want the facts. Also doctor’s accidentally kill more people every year than guns do.
The CDC’s on-line database has data through 2002 only. For the period 1996-2002, their data show that there were 19 accidental firearm-related fatalities for persons 0-14 years in North Carolina.
Wow. The same BS, recycled every 10 years.
Here’s the link to the CDC website.
http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10.html
If he did....... it clearly wasn’t on, operating properly or monitored. Aside the alarm is no better that the bad guy waking you up vs the local siren of the alarm system if you have no means of self defense.
A defense in depth of physical security features such as quality door frames, burglar films on glass, good dead bolt locks etc should include but not be limited too the following......
Electronic sensors properly positioned to layer, protect each other and sequence in type of protection such as AIR, PIR, Infrasonic, IR trips, pressure pads, magnetic and contact types etc .
The ability to communicate with 911 should a line be cut with a fixed and portable cellular system on a UPS. Ones local alarm should be able to be sent to a monitoring agency with land line, cellular and the Internet.
Small barking pups, nervous sorts ...interacting with a plan that won’t cause false alarms of the electronics in place.
No one part of this “alarm” system is solid or undefeatable. All electronics can be bypassed or countered by a professional. The point is to layer a security system so each part protects the next, works in harmony with the other and have the ability to get medieval with the proper application of self defense to ...........stop the threat.
I know of no better tool to “stop the threat” for the common average home owner than a 12 gauge shotgun......
Just my opinion .......a review more than a Monday morning QB of the event. He may have had all of the above and luck was against them........doubtful. But possible.
And a couple rounds of 00 buck should perf the perp nicely.
In 2004, there were 69 firearm deaths of children and teens in North Carolina, including 22 suicides and 5 accidents
Notice only 5 accidents.....
and tells the bad guy right where to aim.
The CDC’s on-line database has data through 2002 only. For the period , their data show that there were 19 accidental firearm-related fatalities for persons 0-14 years in North Carolina.
If is was a model 1911 .45, it probably wasn’t cocked and the child who was squeezing the trigger didn’t know how to deactivate the safeties.
As if I needed to gaze into a diseased sewer to know it’s an unhealthy atmosphere....
Yep, I saw the one you're referring to the other day and just shook my head. Sad part is a lot of folks are all-too-willing to believe that nonsense.
Future victim.
OK so now we publish the authors address,
This way thieves know easy pickings there.
One freeper did look it up and posted it but the moderator (mercifully) deleted it.
yeah, besides, who has them set while they’re at home?
one of my friends had a whole blown out system, motion detectors, noise detectors, door/ window movement, the whole 9 yards. of course, if the power went out, it didn’t work, so he got a generator. it took a couple tries to figure out how to set it up so it wouldn’t go off when the generator kicked in. he had the whole thing programmed, 6 ways to sunday, for different passwords for people, different times, etc.
the biggest problem came with setting off the alarm. you had 20 seconds to get it off, then a couple minutes before it sends out an alarm to the company, then you wait while they call to talk to you before they call the police.
there’s plenty of time to get in the house and rip the alarm off the wall, or force the owner to disable the system.
or if you cut the phone line before going in, its even easier.
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