mk linked us to an article with the heading, "Guns Kill People." It reminded me of a story I wrote back in the last century (around 1990, before gun acquisition laws changed in Canada). The story was written pretty much verbatim, based on an experience my friend had with the police.
GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE
After seven years of marriage, I asked my husband, Henry, to leave. I was packing his things to leave on the sidewalk when I found two guns - a Swiss starter pistol in his sock drawer and a 22-calibre shotgun in the clothes closet under the Christmas wrapping paper.
The starter pistol was unimpressive - tiny and black, but the shotgun was striking. A hunting gun from England, it had a 24" barrel, polished wooden casing, and a black metal trigger.
I contemplated throwing them into the bay, but it would have been awkward taking my little girl and two guns to the high level bridge. In addition, I frequently saw my husband stalking the house. I was afraid that If he found me moving his guns, he'd get crazy. I phoned the police and asked them to come and take the guns away.
An officer appeared at the door and introduced himself as Officer Hunter. I invited him in. At 6'3", he towered over me. He had a gun and a nightstick. He was fearless.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"I'd like you to take my husband's guns. We've recently separated. I don't like guns around the house and my daughter doesn't know we have them. I don't teach her about guns." He raised his eyebrows and looked at me as though I were a very unusual kind of human.
"If they're his guns, he has the right to keep them in his home."
"My husband and I are separated. I'm going through the legal procedures. He's an alcoholic and a drug-addict."
"Has he ever threatened you?" Officer Hunter asked.
"Yes, in the past."
"Well, that's the past." He looked at me reassuringly assuming I'd see his point.
"The last thing Henry said to me was that he hoped I'd kill myself so he could have the house."
Officer Hunter thought this over. Finally, he said, "I'd rather not take a citizen's private property. Can you give them to one of his friends?"
"My husband's an alcoholic and a drug-addict. He's threatened to kill me."
"Does he have an FAC?"
"What's that?"
"A Firearms Acquisition Certificate - a licence to buy a gun."
"I don't think so. They were his mother's guns."
This seemed to concern him. Without enthusiasm, he said, "Well, I could take them, but they look like valuable guns."
I thought the police would be glad to get some guns out of circulation. I guess I was wrong. "I suppose I could ask his brother to pick them up."
"Are you on good terms with his brother?" Officer Hunter asked.
"Not particularly," I replied.
"Does his brother have an FAC?"
"I - don't - know." I tried to keep control, otherwise I'd appear like "a crazy wife". "Wot a bitch," he'd say later at the station.
"Well, I guess I should call it in."
Officer Hunter called Central Station and discovered not only that Henry had no FAC, but also that I had called the police twice to protect myself and my daughter.
"I'll have to take his guns," he said. "Do you know where he is?"
"He's at his mother's."
"OK, I advise you to call him and let him know his guns are at the station. He can come down, fill out an application, and have his guns back. They look like very expensive guns. I think he would want them back."
"My husband's an alcoholic and a drug-addict. He's threatened to kill me."
"I quite understand your position, Ma'am, but you have to call him or the guns will be destroyed in a few days. I wouldn't want to do that."
Officer Hunter asked for a green garbage bag to put the guns in so the kids on the street wouldn't see them. He said, "If kids see guns coming out of your house, they're not going to want to come here on Hallowe'en."
"Thanks for the tip," I said.
I escorted Officer Hunter and the guns to the front door. He opened the door, paused, then turned and looked at me. "You know, ma'am," he said, "it's people that kill people."
"If he's living under the roof we can't really do much. Sorry." "But he's cooking heroin on my silverware. He's been stealing my crap and fencing it on the Ave for drug money. Look, I found a dozen of my CDs at a pawn shop with his name on the form." "Again, technically, there isn't much we can do. tell you what, though. What's his name?" "Stoner McStonerson. Why?" "Hang on... (...) Okay, yeah, there's actually an outstanding bench warrant. I can run him in - " "Great! Let's go!" "Hang on. It's Wednesday. If I run him in now he'll be out by Thursday morning. Call me back Friday around four in the afternoon. He'll be in until Tuesday morning at least and I've never met a junkie that enjoys a weekend in jail. That should convince him to move. Here's my card - ask dispatch to call this car number and I'll take care of it." - A Seattle PD cop who once trampled someone else's constitutional rights for my benefit _______________________ In a perfect world, Officer Hunter would have said "You now, ma'am, wink wink, nudge nudge, you're responsible for informing your husband that his weapons will be destroyed if he doesn't pick them up within three days." Unfortunately, Officer Hunter doesn't sound like a particularly useful human being. It occurred to me that my cop probably would have said "You know, ma'am, we don't really have any provision for confiscating firearms without an iron-clad warranted reason to do so. However, since you're still married, and the guns are community property, you would be perfectly within your rights to, for example, pawn them. Or sell them on Craigslist. Just as a hypothetical." But then I remembered that you can't buy or sell guns at pawn shops in Canada. How does that work, by the way?
I don't know, maybe you can buy guns at a pawn shop or on-line at Gun Mall Canada -- but first you need a P.A.L. Yes, in Canada, the licence to own a gun is called a PAL. Possession and Acquisition Licence. You take a course + test ($150), or just take a test ($40). When you have your PAL, you go shopping. I had an experience like the one in your top line: "If he's living under your roof, we can't really do much." Apparently though, if he throws so much as a pillow at you, that's assault and they can haul him off. Or so they said. Long ago, in a province far away. Thanks for your comments kb.
Yes! Patriarchal and out of touch. The two characters in the story occupy different "communication environments": the personal experiences, cultural background, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations that participants bring to a conversation. I used to use this story as an example of how a person brings their own reality: beliefs, assumptions, and expectations to a communication encounter. The policeman in this story was mainly worried about the guns. I believe that there is better training now and many law officers are becoming more sensitive. I hope so. I have another domestic violence story about the police. I'll post it at some point. Another example of differing communication environments is what has become known as the FBI Pizza Caper, which has been verified by Snopes here.
So well written. Thank you for writing it.
Very nice story, and I think it gets the point across. My dad always told it to me this way: If you left a gun on a chair, at no point will it ever decide to just shoot. Someone has to pull the trigger.
I enjoy the simplicity of that statement, if only things were that simple. Guns are awesome things, they really are. They're fun to shoot, no doubt about it. Also, when you hold one, you get a sense of the power in your grasp. Consider it, this mechanism in the palm of your hand can almost immediately end lives. That's a really, really powerful thing. In the right hands, it's a tool to protect in the wrong hands it's a tool to destroy. I would wager that So people do kill people, but they do it with guns. It's a tandem thing.If you left a gun on a chair, at no point will it ever decide to just shoot. Someone has to pull the trigger.
My guess is that if there was no gun on that chair, there are many people that have killed that wouldn't have. What I mean is that the gun itself is the impetus for destruction. The argument from the NRA types is always, well cars kill too or people can use a knife.. but that sense of absolute power doesn't come with a car or a knife. Guns though, they make you feel like a little god. Most of us humans come equipped with a governor that moderates our faux-god- tendencies, but some of us don't and it takes certain devices to set them off. Chairs don't set people off... guns do.
Pardon the late reply, but I would say the major thing here is that the gun requires minimal mental control over your body to execute a murder successfully. There's no time to hesitate once the decision to kill (=pull the trigger) has been made. All it takes is for the gun to be pointed in the right direction and a quick twitch of finger. With a machete, knife or an axe, one has to execute full physical assault. That takes concentration and effort and there are many more variables that can go wrong. Dynamite? Kind of, but still requires dedication to carry out the murder as long as the fuse is burning. So that's the thing with guns in my opinion. All it takes is one signal from the brain, a twitch of finger and the target has a bullet in them. The murderer might regret the decision immediately afterwards, but with guns the result is already final.
Hi kuracisto First of all it's a story that was told to me by a friend, so not about me.
Second of all, the story takes place in Canada - not a particularly gun-positive culture. There are certainly guns here and guns are the most common weapon in domestic violence in Canada -- Not everybody is so lucky. I know of people who were terrorized by others, even after a restraining order was put on the partner. I can see how someone might be tempted to acquire a gun if they can never feel safe. I hope I am never in that situation. It would be terrible.Between 1985 and 1994 guns, usually shotguns and rifles, were the most frequently used weapons in female spousal homicides (40 per cent of all cases) (Leesti 1997). Between 1997 and 2006 30 per cent of female victims of spousal homicide were shot (Statistics Canada 2008).
I would never get a gun myself. I would see a gun as endangering me rather than protecting me. The woman in the story is lucky that the spouse moved out and moved on.
great piece. (quick you are missing the 'T' in don't)
Lets erase our messages so no one is the wiser.