Old People With Guns
In the last week, I have read two stories in my local paper about grandmothers shooting their grandchildren. (Luckily, neither child was killed.) Today's' story said that the grandmother and 14-year old grandchild were in an argument, and the grandmother was using her gun to "scare" the teen when it accidentally discharged. The bullet ricocheted and hit the kid in the ankle. "The police say the shooting was justified."
Then, my great aunt recently had someone knocking on her door and ringing her door bell over and over. She is not in the best of health, so she was just not going to go to the door. The person outside kept ringing and banging on the door. She retrieved her husband's pistol, opened the door and said, "can I help you?" The people took off and said, "no, we don't need anything."
My thoughts on this are twofold. First, the worst whipping Granny ever gave me was with the backside of a hairbrush. It was a pink hairbrush, and it mysteriously disappeared not very long after I was whipped. Anytime she would try to "scare" me, she just had to look at a hairbrush. The thought of her scaring me with a "gun" sounds incredibly frightening. Second, and most importantly, who is giving old people guns? Don't they know that is dangerous?
See, older people tend to do exactly what they want to do, when they want to do it, and they think that their way is the right way. Now, I am not knocking being old - I am really looking forward to doing what I want and looking at people and saying, "just blame it on the old lady here." But there is also some danger in this sentiment because some old people rationalize their actions by saying, "well, I will not be here that much longer." (Even though any of us could go at any moment.) Statistically speaking, this is probably true, but this is exactly why we shouldn't give old people guns.
The other thing is, old people can't really see that well. My grandmother is pretty much blind. If she had a pistol and she was frightened someone was coming in her home, she would just have to aim toward the noise and shoot. On any given day - it could easily be a family member, and she would never know. Its like that old saying, "guns don't kill people. People kill people." It is very true, of course people kill people, but does it up the ante when the "people" are blind, hard of hearing, and statistically closer to the end of life? I think it is a thought worth considering.
Then, my great aunt recently had someone knocking on her door and ringing her door bell over and over. She is not in the best of health, so she was just not going to go to the door. The person outside kept ringing and banging on the door. She retrieved her husband's pistol, opened the door and said, "can I help you?" The people took off and said, "no, we don't need anything."
My thoughts on this are twofold. First, the worst whipping Granny ever gave me was with the backside of a hairbrush. It was a pink hairbrush, and it mysteriously disappeared not very long after I was whipped. Anytime she would try to "scare" me, she just had to look at a hairbrush. The thought of her scaring me with a "gun" sounds incredibly frightening. Second, and most importantly, who is giving old people guns? Don't they know that is dangerous?
See, older people tend to do exactly what they want to do, when they want to do it, and they think that their way is the right way. Now, I am not knocking being old - I am really looking forward to doing what I want and looking at people and saying, "just blame it on the old lady here." But there is also some danger in this sentiment because some old people rationalize their actions by saying, "well, I will not be here that much longer." (Even though any of us could go at any moment.) Statistically speaking, this is probably true, but this is exactly why we shouldn't give old people guns.
The other thing is, old people can't really see that well. My grandmother is pretty much blind. If she had a pistol and she was frightened someone was coming in her home, she would just have to aim toward the noise and shoot. On any given day - it could easily be a family member, and she would never know. Its like that old saying, "guns don't kill people. People kill people." It is very true, of course people kill people, but does it up the ante when the "people" are blind, hard of hearing, and statistically closer to the end of life? I think it is a thought worth considering.
Comments
(I agree with you, I'm just being funny)