Hi folks,
I know that most of us here share the same values, but also that we have a different history, and different ways of giving them reality in the real world.
For instance, "The Three Musketeers" was about a group of friends who first met by having a showdown, at a time when duels had been forgotten because the French nobility was killing each other (see: rappers in Florida).
A bit like when emperor Meiji abolished the right of samurai to bear arms.
I won't judge you, but think: if, out of fear, you had shot a neighbour, or even a friend, or someone you've never met before but looked "suspect" (like someone freaking out for the same reason as you), how would you feel?
I know it's fun to shoot at a target: when I was a kid, my father had a 22 long rifle that we used on a taget in the attics. When we moved away, we had to change the door, and fortunately, no one ever came upstairs saying "Hi guys, I've come to tell you -BANG !"
But as I said, we don't live in the same place, and don't have the same culture. Here only the cops and in some places gangs have weapons. Fortunately there are much more law-abiding citizens that don't have guns than hoodlums and the police don't shoot 100 bullets in a "suspect" climbing his grandmother's fence to bing her cookies.
I understand from your user name that you're a woman, and as a woman, you're even more prone to be the prey of predators, and so you want to feel safe, so I'm not lecturing you.
But I much better prefer to live in a society where guns are outlawed. For, at least from I can see, or read from statistics, it's much safer to live in a place where people have grown up from playing cowboys and indians with bb guns, and I think that owning guns is not a sign of civilization.
I've met people who have been mugged, beaten up, and even raped. none of them ever thought of buying a gun, and I know how the trauma lasts a long time.
To conclude this ranting:
If you had had a gun, are you sure you would have been the one to "win".
When someone dies, there's no victor (though an atheist, I'm still infused with the values of the new testament I guess...)
Go forward, coffeegirl, don't let bad people spoil this wonderful world, nothing is worse than letting people define you, or lead you to consider yourself as a victim, never give up.
Don't lose (all) your innocence....
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We value AND defend freedom and Liberty.
