The other night, Travis and I were sitting in the backyard eating our dinner when our neighbor's neighbor came outside (Sara - remember your neighbor?). Every night he sits on that back stoop, grinding away at some sort of metal. He has some sort of a smoker sitting back there, so we always assumed he was working on the smoker. After several weeks, we decided that he must not be doing anything with the smoker because we've never seen him actually touch the thing and it doesn't appear to be changing at all.
Sitting in our yard that night was the longest we had ever spent watching that neighbor. Here's a quick background on the guy: he is probably in his 40's, lives at home with his mother and his dog died a couple years ago - there is a chance that he buried that dog in his backyard. We finally got a better look at whatever he is grinding. Alarmingly, it appears to be a knife. We both agreed that this is what it looks like.
After 15 minutes of messing with this sliver of metal, he set it down and went in the back door to the house. A couple minutes later, a Frisbee comes soaring out the door into the backyard. A moment later, another one follows. Then the guy comes out after the Frisbees, looks at the dog in his neighbor's yard and throws the Frisbees again. The entire time, his neighbor's dog is chasing the Frisbees from his side of the fence back and forth in the yard. This goes on for maybe 5 minutes before he brings out a golf ball and club. He looks at the dog and gives the ball a little toss, walks up to the ball and chips it several feet.
I am unsure if he was playing with the dog, since he misses his own, or if he was teasing the dog. Either way, the whole thing was just creepy. This is when Travis takes advantage of the situation and says "This is why we need a gun."
"Whaa? Why?"
"Protection against crazy guys like that."
Ohhhhhh no. I don't think so. I do NOT want a gun in my house. I can guarantee you that if anyone breaks in my house while Travis is gone, I will hesitate with that gun long enough that the trespasser will have time to turn our gun on me. NO THANKS.
Travis tells me I have to get over that because if someone is in your house, I should assume they are there to hurt me and shoot. Nope. Sorry! The first thing I'm going to think is, maybe he's not going to hurt me and he just wants our stuff. I don't think the punishment for robbing should be death. I would also be worried about getting in trouble for it later. Too many bad things can happen, so I'd rather just not have a gun to muddle up the situation.
Then Travis says he would get a gun safe in which to keep his guns.
"Well, what if the trespasser cuts off each of my fingers until I give him the code to the safe. Then he has my fingers, your guns AND your bullets. Not an ideal situation. Again, no."
After arguing for a while, I say fine. You can have a gun. But no ammunition in our house. I may still have to lose all my fingers because the criminal probably won't believe that we do not have ammunition in the house, but at least Travis will have his guns, right? Wrong. Travis wants his guns AND his ammunition IN our house for MY protection.
Sitting in our yard that night was the longest we had ever spent watching that neighbor. Here's a quick background on the guy: he is probably in his 40's, lives at home with his mother and his dog died a couple years ago - there is a chance that he buried that dog in his backyard. We finally got a better look at whatever he is grinding. Alarmingly, it appears to be a knife. We both agreed that this is what it looks like.
After 15 minutes of messing with this sliver of metal, he set it down and went in the back door to the house. A couple minutes later, a Frisbee comes soaring out the door into the backyard. A moment later, another one follows. Then the guy comes out after the Frisbees, looks at the dog in his neighbor's yard and throws the Frisbees again. The entire time, his neighbor's dog is chasing the Frisbees from his side of the fence back and forth in the yard. This goes on for maybe 5 minutes before he brings out a golf ball and club. He looks at the dog and gives the ball a little toss, walks up to the ball and chips it several feet.
I am unsure if he was playing with the dog, since he misses his own, or if he was teasing the dog. Either way, the whole thing was just creepy. This is when Travis takes advantage of the situation and says "This is why we need a gun."
"Whaa? Why?"
"Protection against crazy guys like that."
Ohhhhhh no. I don't think so. I do NOT want a gun in my house. I can guarantee you that if anyone breaks in my house while Travis is gone, I will hesitate with that gun long enough that the trespasser will have time to turn our gun on me. NO THANKS.
Travis tells me I have to get over that because if someone is in your house, I should assume they are there to hurt me and shoot. Nope. Sorry! The first thing I'm going to think is, maybe he's not going to hurt me and he just wants our stuff. I don't think the punishment for robbing should be death. I would also be worried about getting in trouble for it later. Too many bad things can happen, so I'd rather just not have a gun to muddle up the situation.
Then Travis says he would get a gun safe in which to keep his guns.
"Well, what if the trespasser cuts off each of my fingers until I give him the code to the safe. Then he has my fingers, your guns AND your bullets. Not an ideal situation. Again, no."
After arguing for a while, I say fine. You can have a gun. But no ammunition in our house. I may still have to lose all my fingers because the criminal probably won't believe that we do not have ammunition in the house, but at least Travis will have his guns, right? Wrong. Travis wants his guns AND his ammunition IN our house for MY protection.
He asks me if I at least see his point. Yes, I say. I do. You want to shoot someone. Or you want me to shoot someone. Or maybe it's just that you have absolutely no problem shooting someone and now I should feel bad because I will hesitate in such a situation?
- I don't think that the need of a gun, a gun safe and ammunition is worth the cost considering how many times we have needed a gun for safety in the past. Which is NEVER.
- If you think I need protection in the home that badly, get me a taser gun. We could get one that has that wrist band so if someone grabs the taser and turns it on me, the key would pull out, locking the mechanism and leaving it non-functional. Win-win, right?
Again, WRONG. Travis didn't want to have the conversation anymore. I am now positive that his entire argument was only to convince me he should be able to get a gun and actually had nothing to do with his concern over my safety. Funny how he worked that into our evening meal.
*****Update*****
I am totally going to ask the parents of Aiden's friends if they have a gun in the house whenever he starts to play at their house without me!! (Thanks Alexa!)
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4 comments:
BWhahahaha, I could repeat this conversation myself with my husband....I told him if he wanted a gun fine, get one, but it is staying at the police station, where they will keep your gun for safe keeping for when you want to go out and shoot it, we are not having it in the house....I think I could find stats on why having a gun in the house is not a good idea. I have before. Totally agree with ya sista!
Nice try Travis! Thats like the little stun gun that I want. It even has a flashlight on it...so you can see at night when you're walking to your car and so that you can absolutely see the best place to stun someone!
I see both sides...Travis is right about you getting killed though, if someone is crazy enough to break in to your house and you just happen to be home, well they are crazy enough to kill you - because 1 you have now seen them and can report them to the police...so what would happen to Aiden? would he be left alone, waiting for someone to arrive at the scene?
On the other hand, I dont like guns - and although JR has a shotgun, we have no ammuntition. Even if he was to get ammunition it would have to be locked away. But then, what is the pooint of having it...I would have to run around to get the ammunition out of the safe, load the gun, and get my children...by this time, I think the robber has a head start on me! If I did somehow manage to get my kids and load a weapon, I would not hesitate to shoot. I would be physcologically scarred afterwards, but in the moment I would have no problem killing someone if it meant protecting myself and my kids. I also think that as long as I have enough time to grab my phone and my kids, I could hold on long enough for the cops to arrive...We have baseball bats all over the house, so I could always use one as a weapon if I needed to. My best advice is to think about exit plans...if a robber came through that door, how would I get out of the house? What if Aiden was taking a nap, you would have to run to his room - you can't get out the windows, so there should be some sort of object you can use to protect yourself while you and your child are waiting for the police...See? If you think about as many situations as you can, it will help in the end...At least I hope it does! LOL
Alexa - I guess I forgot to mention that I offered that up (keeping the gun at the police station) but "what good will a gun do at protecting me if it is at the police station?" UGH!
Sara - I think about these situations ALL the time, especially when Travis is working late. And the situation that makes me the most comfortable is locking myself in a room with my son and my phone and maybe a heavy vase. I would also feel more comfortable with a bat, but I don't think we have one. I'd have no problem smacking a trespasser in the head with a heavy object since I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to kill them, just stun them.
Silly boys and their toys!
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