Fun With Guns: That’s His Story and He’s Sticking to It Edition
Even in Pennsylvania.
A 78 year old woman was shot in the chest at 3:30 in the damn morning in her damn bathroom.
She was taken to the hospital with “non-life threatening injuries.” Although I cannot for the life of me imagine what is NOT life threatening when you’re 78 years old. Hell, getting out of bed is life threatening when you’re 78 years old.
Here’s the kicker. She was shot by her husband who thought she was an intruder.
I know. Nuts.
Police believe the husband suffers from a medical condition, which may have been a factor.
Ya think? Now let’s assume her husband is also at least 78 years old. What the fool tarnation is a 78 year old man with “a medical condition” doing with a damn gun? You get a medical condition that causes you to shoot people randomly, you gotta give up the gun.
Or, give them both guns, lock them in the house and let them fight it out, like Geriatric Wild Kingdom.
When oh when will the gun nuts realize that a bit of gun control is a good thing. I don’t want the guns of anyone qualified to handle them. I just want guns and morons separated.
1I used to keep a gun in the bedroom. I woke up one night thinking there was an intruder in the room. Was just about to pull the trigger when I came to my senses. Turned out it was just my imagination. Fortunately it was not my wife. Can’t imagine how I would have felt about threatening her with a gun. The gun went into the safe that day. Now I don’t have any guns at all.
Nobody should have easy access to guns in their house even if they don’t have kids at home.
2Geriatric Wild Kingdom? I LOVE that!!
3Sad story, but not that odd. In a nutshell, as a teen, got the flu. Went downstairs to watch TV while parents were out. Turned off TV and fell asleep on couch. Parents return late, turn off lamp next to couch and go to bed. 3am I awake and stumble against coffee table in the dark on my way to bathroom. Washing my face, out of the corner of my eye I catch movement. Through the bathroom door comes the barrel of a rifle. Father says “It’s you!” “Who else would it be?” I asked. “I thought you were a burglar.” “Are you nuts? A guy breaks in to rob a house then decides to freshen up first?!” The closest I ever came to being shot. True story.
4Add two more jobs to the dangerous list: delivering for “Meals on Wheels” and responding to calls from those ‘medic alert’ necklaces.
Comes a day one expects to wrestle their car keys from Mom and/or Pops. Might want to think about first wrestling the guns from their wrinkled fingers. “Hi Mom! Nice looking cake. Is it loaded?”
5slipstream’s own grandfather once woke up in the middle of the night, thinking he heard an intruder downstairs. Got his gun, crept down the stairs, cornered the dastardly varmint in the living room. One shot rang out.
The clock on the mantelpiece was stone cold dead.
6My goodness, if you cannot drive when elderly because you are ( or could ) be a danger. Shouldn’t someone in that family take Dad’s gun away as well as the keys?
7My father had an arsenal, and Alzheimer’s.
When I said to his doctor, “So, Hank, what should I do about the guns?” the doctor turned pale.
I will not even detail the underhanded things I had to do to get the guns out of my father’s hands, mostly to protect my mom. Who was 80, perfectly competent, but of the generation and class that believed the wife should support the husband in his wishes under all circumstances.
Taking away the guns was far more difficult than persuading him to stop driving.
There was nothing remotely funny about the situation.
8com’on, everyone knows that the first thing a burgular does when he comes in is go to the bath room and take a… well, use ur imagination, and of course being a fine christian gentleman, he flushes the toilet!
9The real problem here is that people think weapons are for defense. They’re not – at most, they’re useful for counterattacking.
For defense, try a dog, an alarm system and maybe bars on the doors and windows. If the bad guys can get into your house undetected, they can easily get the drop on you.
There’s reasons why forts had walls and moats (and barbed wire in more modern times) in addition to the cannon…
10Former caregiver, my sincere apologies! It was wrong of me to make light of a serious situation that many have already faced and many of us will eventually face.
Won’t snitch out which of my cousins or which of our mutual relatives drove from their garage into the kitchen. No one was hurt, so bad boys that we are we did share a few guffaws while repairing the damage. For some of us, humor is a ‘pressure relief’ valve when we know “it could have been worse.”
11Captain Obvious here, but when my little bride and I began a couple of years ago to fill in the blanks on our end of life plan, I told my youngest daughter, my executor if her momma pre-deceases me, when it comes time to take the motor car keys from old Dad, that’s a good time to take all the firearms as well. Of course I expect to be about 95 when that happens. Just sayin’
12In CA, if a person has been adjudicated to be a danger to self or others, either the state DoJ special team or local law enforcement can come in and remove guns. Sometimes this adjudication comes with a specific end-point, though with dementia such as Alzheimer’s or Lewy body or other geriatric, I’d guess not. State actually funds teams to retrieve firearms from so-called “armed and prohibited persons” (convicted of felony or violent misdemeanor; under domestic protection order for duration of that order; or danger to self or others.) It’s a very sophisticated program. If I had a parent or family member with that level of dementia who had access to firearms, I’d probably work with the primary care doc and/or neurologist to find a way to get them removed from household. Better a crabby demented person in the household than a gunshot victim.
13If only a gun were as complicated to use as the TV remote. Then, if it didn’t get lost between the couch cushions, you’d still have to push “Shoot” seven or eight times before it would actually work. Giving the family member enough time to duck or hide or get themselves out of the room.
14==> Jane & PKM
15Now that I think of it some more, there were blackly humorous aspects (in retrospect), like when I asked the gun shop owner to make some fake bullets. “But, but, but, your dad is the first line of defense!”
Having gone through dementia problems with both parents, I found that the car became as dangerous as a gun. My Dad’s doctor would not take away his license even though he had a few mini strokes and sideswiped a car and a truck. We eventually went to the police and begged. They came to the door and he handed over the keys immediately. Hope they’d do the same with weapons.
16I thought the car issue would be settled when my mother’s doctor refused to sign the form saying that my mother (about 92 at the time) was safe to drive. Then my mother told me she’d signed the doctor’s name and sent it in. She got her license renewed. Fortunately she didn’t drive after that anyway, but jeez….
17“Geriatric Wild Kingdom.”
I read that, took a breath, examined my mental image and doubled over in laughter. Thank you JJ.
18Remember our fearful pres giving all those people with diminished capacity firearms? The NRA will fight to the death (see what I did there?) to provide us geezers with firearms. Call them Colt 92.
19in my NRA gun safety class (taken many years ago), we were taught that guns and ammo should never mate until intended to be used. further, those guns and ammo should be stored, separately, in locked cases/safes/etc., to avoid easily avoidable accidents, such as the one in the post, and others mentioned. while it does make the “home defense” line ridiculous, it’s a hell of a lot safer for all concerned.
alas, that was in a time before the NRA became full rabid, baying at the moon nutjobs. as one of our esteemed Democratic Senators once pointed out, if you want a gun for home protection, get a shotgun, not a pistol/rifle. a shotgun, with birdshot, at close range, will hit the person, and put them down. with a single-shot weapon, in a high state of excitement, the odds are much better that you’ll miss your target, have the weapon taken from you, and used against you.
20Yeah. they make a fine little shot shell for a 38 short barrel revolver. The first shot’s birdshot, then the warnings are over…
21The rePUKEian gun nuts do have gun control…there are no guns allowed at rePUKEian conferences especially when the head clown is present. And considering the head clown made it possible for mentally institutionalized people to get guns, where is this a surprise!?!?!?!
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