I own guns.
There.
I said it.
Not a lot- a coupla rifles and a pistol grip 12-gauge. I don’t have any problem with guns or with people owning guns or with people carrying guns concealed or otherwise. Shooting guns is FUN. If you’ve never done it, try it. Honest.
I’m not one of those people that believe if you get rid of guns you’ll get rid of senseless killings. Setting aside the extremely random shoot-em-ups, people will find a way to kill one another if they really want to, whether it be by bullet or knife or baseball bat or rock.
Nor am I one of those people that believe that if we don’t have guns the wurrrrlllddds guuuunna ennnnndddd.
I just think playing with guns is like gay marriage or abortion or breast implants. If you’re an adult and you wanna do it and you’re not hurting anyone else, fucking do it and please, oh please, can’t we just STOP talking about it? (I can’t wait to see the e-mails I get ’cause I just compared guns to breast implants)
So I was surprised by my reaction to something that happened on Sunday.
I’m down on the Island, working on the doggy dreamhouse, and I’m ferrying shit up the ladder from MR.GREENE. when I see two little kids standing huddled at the end of our dock looking like little kids do when they feel like they’ve been caught doing something wrong.
They’re practically standing on top of the NO TRESPASSING sign we have on the dock that Miss Carol and me hope’ll litigiously protect us were anyone to get on the dock and get hurt. I don’t really care who uses the dock as long as they don’t set in on fire or something.
So I wave to the kids to let ’em everythings fine and I’m cool with it and I go up the ladder with another load and when I come back down the two boys are walking across the lot towards the road. Just walking and talking and cutting up and looking like kids everywhere.
Except they’re both packin’ shotguns.
These boys couldn’t have been more than 10 or 12 years old and they were carrying those big ‘ole guns the way a mechanic carries a wrench. Nonchalantly bleah.
Initially? I was shocked. And even though I have no problem with ’em, they’ve been portrayed for soooooo long as things sooooooo inherently evil that to see them outside of a TV show or a movie is, I don’t know, unsettling? Guns, I mean, not little boys.
But as I watched those kids walk up the street I had to marvel at where I’m at geographically and where we’re at societally. I mean, can you imagine an urban metrosexual coming down here and seeing two little boys openly packin’ heat?
I let my mind run around in it for a little bit and then just shrugged and went back to humpin’ materials up the ladder.
Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
oceandoggy.com 
–>I’m fine with guns too and when my husband was courting me years ago, I insisted he take me to a gun range to teach me how to shoot his glock. I definitely stuck out in my khaki pants and full set up teeth.
Still, there is something a little odd about two young boys carrying guns when it’s not hunting season.
And it was fun, right?
Shooting the glock, I mean.
All I can remember the first time I shot a rifle was the guy telling me to be sure I had it tucked in my shoulder because if I didn’t, I could get hurt. I was quite worried about getting hurt so I probably didn’t “experience” it like I should have…but I didn’t get hurt.
Flash forward a few years and I’m on a range shooting a 357…now that was fun ~ and wow, what a kick! Loud too….I remember my then husband telling me if someone was trying to break in I didn’t even have to worry about hitting them, the sound would probably scare them away. 🙂
I KNOW.
The only reason I have the pistol grip 12 gauge is I’m hoping that ratcheting a round into the barrel would be enough.
an urban metrosexual? hell, i would shit my pants if i saw two kids with guns. then i would call the cops. then i would berate their parents. then i would write an angry letter to … someone important. for the sake of writing, not because i think anything would get accomplished by it. that’s scary shit. someone’s gonna shoot an eye out. or a brain.
It’s a whole different world down here.
You’d be amazed.
I wish I coulda’ taken a picture of those guys. Just kids having fun, calling down geese and trying to shoot them.
Actually I think it’s cool they’re outside doin’ shit and not plugged into some video game.
All right. Well. I know I’m all stuffy and uptight, but honest- I don’t have a problem with guns. They make me a little nervous, but that’s only ’cause I don’t know anything about them, never shot one, etc etc. So, it’s really just my natural and absurd fear of the unknown more than anything.
With that being said, I do have a problem with 12-year-olds carrying guns. I just don’t believe kids that age have the maturity or knowledge or sense of responsibility that carrying a gun requires.
I’m glad they were outside… but whatever happened to, I dunno, sports?
Ah Stephanie.
We gotta get you to a range. You could blow off YEARS of tension.
Guns are fun.