Thursday, February 12, 2009

Whistles

I read a blog post yesterday. I can't find it today, I tried looking, checked my history, checked all my usual haunts online and simply can not find it.

It wasn't anything huge or epic or awesome, but it made me think. In fact I was still thinking about it hours later and when I realized that I had to ask myself why. Let me recount the story to the best of my ability.

There was a woman, a nurse if my memory serves me, and she had some ex-boyfriend issues. She asked her friends for advice and one of her friends, the person who's blog I read this on, suggested she get a gun and carry concealed. Her other friends suggested a rape whistle. Several weeks later she was found beaten to death in the parking lot, rape whistle still between her teeth, filled with blood. She blew it till she died and it did her absolutely no good.

I don't know if the story as it was related is true. neither do I care. Details don't matter, but the moral of the story does matter.

A few weeks ago The Missus asked me why I had a sudden interest in guns and I couldn't think of a good answer. I knew why, sorta, but I couldn't articulate what I was thinking, what I was feeling.

I stood outside an IHOP several months ago and watched a man drag his girlfriend out of the restaurant by her hair, spend minutes in the parking lot yelling at her, then hit her and toss her in a car before driving off. I stood there, and watched. I stood there because I had called 911, and the cops were on their way. They arrived minutes too late. Like always.

I ran that night through my mind a number of times, should I have fought, should I have intervened, what if... what if.... what if. At the end of the day I know that my skills might have kept me alive in a fight, he might not have a knife, he might not have a gun, it might have been ok. or it might not.

Let's go back to the nurse in the parking lot. She chose to not arm herself, to not be able to defend herself, to accept that if she were attacked the best she could hope for was someone else to willingly intervene on her behalf, and save her. This decision cost her dearly. It cost her her life. Had I been there, would I have intervened? I didn't in the IHOP parking lot and I'm trained to fight, I know how to strike, throw and grapple yet I did not intervene. neither did anyone else in that parking lot that night.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is I have an interest in guns, I want those around me to have an interest in guns, so if something should happen, if I need that weapon it's there. I want to know that those in my life who matter to me don't resort to a whistle. I want to know that if I ever have another chance to get it right.... that I won't stand there scared to fight, that I would do what was needed.

I'm a sheep, all be it a sheep with eyes open, I don't want to be a sheep any more.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

omg ... both incidents give a lot of food for thought. I hate guns. I hate the idea of guns. But at the same time I lived in a sheltered world.

What if that woman was me or my daughter?

Would of yelling at the guy in the parking lot given his pause?