Pro Gunners last stand

My pro-gun stance comes from a very different point of view. I have about all the arguments to support both the pro and anti-gun stances. To start my point of view goes back to when I was about 9 years old. Not to sound cliché, but it does start on a very beautiful day. I was staying at my mother’s best friend’s house.  Which happened quite often. Why that stands out ended up playing a huge part of my life.  One particular day I had agreed to go to work with my father. This was not out of the ordinary. In fact, I ended up going to work with my father quite often especially during the summer. I learned how to weld, and learned not to pick up spent welding rods.

On one particular day before I got the chance to stay at Mary Jean’s house, I was reminded by my father that I suppose to go with him to work. My thinking that day was, hey I can go to work with my Dad any time I want. To stay at Mary Jean’s house was not that often. Being about 9 years old I did what any 9 year old would do: I threw a fit.  Hind sight being 20/20 I regretted that decision for a very, VERY long time. Sometimes even now, I still regret that decision.  My dad gave in not wanting a pouting kid sitting around all day.  I would love to go back to the day and change my younger self’s mind.  I wonder how my life would have turned out then.

The events from that day will never leave my family.  I remember being at Mary Jeans house with her mother watching me. I was making scrambled eggs that Mary Jean had just taught me to make.  I remember her coming home early from work and standing behind me.  She told me that my father had been shot.  Now at first it did not register, and not because of shock. The reason I did not get it at first, is because my father worked at a company that dealt with a material called shot.  Shot is a material that is comprised of fine metal balls that was used in his company’s shot blasting machines.  Think of sand and that is the size of the material that was used in the machines.  We were standing there and I asked if she meant that he got hurt by the material he works with, the stuff makes concrete turn into ice.  I personally have fallen on the floor plenty of times due to the shot material being on the floor.  She said no and explained that my father was shot by someone with a gun.

What she explained would have a ripple effect throughout my entire family’s life. What had happened is that a man of unknown identity, had walked into the repair/shipping area of the building that my father’s company was located in.  My dad and his boss named Bill, were talking.  It was around noon time, when the unknown assailant walked in through the industry garage door.  At the time it was not uncommon for contractors to show up with no notice.  My father and Bill both turned to the man, when he pulled a hand gun out pointing it at both of them.   He then had my father step slightly away and turn around. My father kept his head turned, and what he saw he never thought would happen. He had spent 4 years in the Coast Guard and was not prepared for the events that transpired to actually take place.  What happened next as my father has told me, happened quick.  This unknown man pulled the trigger twice point blank against Bill’s head.  My father described what he saw.  He said it was as if you melted like a candle.  No violent movement back, nothing like the movies or TV.  Bill was dead instantly – just fell straight to the floor as if someone turned a switch off.

My father watched as this happened, just as he started to turn around. This unknown man turned and fired two shots at my father. One struck him in his shoulder and exited striking part of his chin. The second shot entered his posterior inches from his spine, and what could be described as a pinball bouncing around in his abdominal area and exiting anteriorly.  My father said it felt as if a bee had stung him as he fell to the ground. The unknown man calmly walked out the garage door the same way he had entered.  He walked in and left as if he did not have a care in the world.  The people that worked in the front section of the building never knew.  It was not uncommon for loud noises to come from the shop.  The people in the front section of the building paid no attention to the noise.

My father later told us, that as he laid there bleeding out, he felt tired and sleepy.  He know if he fell asleep that was it.  No one would have checked on them.  No one would have known what had happened for several hours or till later that night.  My father also stated that he knew if he did not get up he would be a dead man and my mother would have tracked him down dead or not. He got up and used a push broom half as a crutch, half as a possible weapon. He did not know if the man was right outside, coming back or what. He then walked around the building to the company in the front half of the building with blood dripping.  He told me that when he walked in, it scared the hell out of the secretary.  From there EMS was called, and thank God Hamilton Township had just started using paramedics.

My father went through hell that day and the days that followed. Till this day Hamilton Township Police has not found who the man was. What followed with my family was a long way from anything normal. My father went through 23 surgeries in 10 years. There were times right after the shooting when he returned home that I had to help. What was to come neither my family nor I had a clue. My dad had a temporary colostomy bag that was put in place while his intestines healed. I had to help clean the part of the intestine that was exposed, and change his bag.  Still till this day I cannot eat a stewed tomato, as it reminds me of what the intestines looked like. I did it willingly, as I had felt guilty. I felt that guilt because if I had not fought him, my father and I would have been out to lunch at the time of the shooting.  I know I could not predict what happened that day, but that still does not help.

My family before that day was very trusting to the point of never locking our doors at night.  We believed in the good of people. That day was the end of that fairy tale thinking.  I learned what the real world was real fast that day and the days to come. Now I write all of that story not for sympathy, but to explain why I hate Gun control and any attempts at banning.

Now that unknown man was and is a criminal.  He did not care what laws were in place.  For whatever reason he felt that he had to commit such a heinous act. He did not care that the state prohibited concealed carry. He did not care that murder was against the law. In New Jersey it is a “may-issue” state and getting a concealed carry permit is next to impossible. Permit applicants must “specify in detail the urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant’s life that cannot be avoided by means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun.

As a result of this tough standard, New Jersey is effectively a “no issue” state unless one is a retired law enforcement officer. So in simple terms they violate the resident’s right to bear arms but have armed guard to protect themselves. I know the governors have armed guards, but again it shows that our elected officials feel they are better and more important than their constituents, but I am getting ahead of myself. What these unconstitutional laws do are two things. ONE:  it makes dead bodies; the laws make it so that people cannot defend themselves; TWO: it creates victims.

My family now does not live in the not so great state of New Jersey.  I now proudly live in the State of Florida, where I have the right to protect myself and I have the means to do so.  I know it does not guarantee that I won’t be attacked and lose. What it does do is two things.  Firstly, It creates doubt in a criminal’s mind and secondly, it at least increases my chances to defend the lives of both my family and myself. I recently had a conversation with my dad and asked him about all the talk regarding guns and defending one self.  He personally said that if he had been able to carry that he would at least have would have had the chance to fight back.

What the anti-gun lunatics do not understand is that, being defenseless means you have next to no chance.  It all depends on what that criminal wants to do.  It is his choice whether you live or die. With a way to defend yourself, it may not guarantee anything, but at least gives you a better chance to come out alive. I get in this conversation with my in laws. Last time I saw my mother in law we had the discussion and I reminded her of what my father went through. Now the last question I asked really made sense to her.

It was simple. I asked her “Would you rather I call and say your daughter and granddaughter are dead because I could not protect them, or would she rather get a phone from me saying your daughter and granddaughter are fine and alive but I had to shot the criminal to save them.”  I asked her which phone call she would rather get.  Especially with me reminding her of my father and what were the chances of that happening.  Remember people, that I do respect and understand that some people have made the conscious decision not want a weapon.  Frankly people that is their choice.

It is the people that want to make me defenseless causing me to become a victim again the really PISS ME OFF.  No one is more important than my wife and daughter.  So, if by me carrying a weapon offends you, oh well. Get over it. You can kiss off and go fly a freakin’ kite cuz your damn feelings are not more important than my daughter, wife or family. These anti-gun lunatics use all sorts of tactics, from insulting and cussing to making up wild exaggerations of how if we were allowed to carry and protect ourselves the streets would turn into the “wild west”. The funny part about that statement is the Wild West was not as wild as TV and movies make it out to be.

They talk about how all the kids would shoot themselves or their friends. Ok, so that example might just be a little dramatic. While there have been kids dying because they thought they thought the gun just might be a toy.  While all those cases are sad and maddening, it goes to people not paying attention, lack of education for both the adult and the children. That also goes to, why punish all for the minority mistakes, when compared to the total population of the USA.

What drives me nuts, is that there are over 1,000 federal gun laws.  My question is simple: do you really think that adding one or two new laws will stop a criminal from breaking the law? The law that keep being proposed are in fact already laws. The other FREAKING ANNOYING thing is President Obama and Vice President Biden are still in office.  (HaHaHa) These overpaid jackasses have both said that we do not have the money or man power to enforce our current laws. Frankly my dear, if that is the case why IN THE BLOODY HELL does it make sense to add even more gun control laws that will never be enforced? When pressed for what law do anti-gun lunatics think will stop gun violence, it seems they never can answer that question.  It just seems that it leads to these lunatics to do nothing more than the same ole’ standby of name calling and cussing.

The other anti-gun lunatics attempt to prove their side, by comparing us to other countries. No not comparing to all countries, they cherry pick which countries to compare to. Well my response is twofold. One: if I cherry picked the countries I could make the U.S. the safest country and SECONDLY: if these countries are so much better and you want to live like them. Would it not be easier by just moving to those countries? This statement is not meant if you don’t like it you can leave. Now, let me see if I can explain. Let say I live in a neighborhood I don’t like, but I love the neighborhood three sections over. Now in my section out of a 100 house there are maybe 10 people that do not like the neighborhood but the rest like it. Would it not be easier to sell your house and move to the neighborhood that you like. It would be easier all around.

When I give my story to the anti-gun lunatics, for some reason (yes I know why) they always skip my story and the simple question that follows. What strict gun laws helped my dad? What strict gun law protected my dad? Where were all these anti-gun lunatics to help to change a colostomy bag? To offer help transporting my dad back and forth to hospitals or doctor’s appointment. I can answer those question those laws made my dad and our family a victim and nothing else. Those laws only help the criminals just as those Gun Free zones. Gun free zones only create dead bodies and victims. Criminals pray on the weak and defenseless. Anti-Gun Lunatics want to serve us to criminals on a silver plate. They create Gun Free zones, which are nothing more than the Golden Coral of the criminal world. Look at the last 6 of 7 “mass “shootings they were in Gun Free Zones and the 7th started on a Gun Free zone but finished on the streets.

Anti-gun lunatics will not make me a VICTIM not matter how much it scares them. If I carrying an inanimate object scare you that bad, you should see a therapist or consider moving to one of those “safer gun free countries”. As I have read countless time and been told by friend that in live in a couple of those countries, the gun ban did not stop the violence, in fact it has increased. The biggest difference now is they cannot defend themselves. In UK several years ago “doctors’ kitchen knives ban call A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing. A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase – and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings. They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon. The research is published in the British Medical Journal.”

So please instead of turning our country inside out, lets both take the simpler path. You want what these other countries have and the majority love the way our country has been for 239 years. Please do not confuse the loudest for the majority.  It just means you speak louder. The majority and poll after poll has shown the majority does not what any strict gun control laws.

Also do not count and think the most Bloomberg site or as you call them grassroots anti-gun sites, equals the majority. Those sites happened to be started and funded by Bloomberg. On that point bring me to a hypocrisy that Anti-Gun Lunatics have, they complain about the NRA. Anti-gun lunatics blame everything and anything on the NRA. Anti-gun lunatic think all pro-gun people are NRA member, and a lot of other yip yapping. Anti-Gun Lunatics feel it is ok for Bloomberg and his umpteen “grassroots” anti-gun sites to lobby and buy off politicians, funding elections as long as they push anti-gun. As we all know when the Anti-Gun Lunatics have nothing to back them they go to insult, belittling and cussing. That is when I know they have lost the conversation.

I don’t not think we have a gun control issue, I think we have a self-control issue!

I can say this simple I will not be a VICTIM AGAIN.