The other night when I was home for spring break, there was a newscast about the boy who was dragged to death in Missouri. As a TFL member, of course, I knew more about it than mom. They discussed the mother pleading with the carjacker to let her keep her son, and that he was close enough to touch and that she stayed close to the vehicle while trying to get her son out.
I commented, inevitably, that it was too bad she didn't have a handgun to put in the thug's face while she was begging him to stop and let the boy out. As Oleg says, sometimes you have to say no LOUDER.
Well, she looked at me kind of funny and said
"So what, she should have blown his head off right in front of her little son?"
Now, mom has long lived with dad's collection of guns. She has also hunted deer a long time, though she gave it up not long after I started going (I think she wanted dad to have someone to go with )
To be honest, I couldn't believe she said that.
Seriously, I understand the trauma that child would experience if his mother were forced to kill the thug. But how can it be worse than DYING by being dragged behind? Besides, chances are that if he looked back at her yelling at him, as the mother claims, he would have stopped if he'd seen a gun pointed at his face. I would.
I looked my mother in the eye and calmly said:
"No, she should have pointed it at him. That would give him a reason to stop, which begging wouldn't. And if he still refused to stop, then yes, of course she should have shot him right in front of the boy. How can you think that it would be better to let the boy die, or even just let him be taken by someone who is at least a carjacker, than to have him suffer some trauma over the methods used to save him?"
That started a long conversation. Eventually she agreed that it would be OK for me to go armed if it were legal but she would never want to because she doesn't think she's fast enough on the draw (bases that on pheasant hunting and she might be right.)
Urrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh. Didn't expect to have to convert mom.
I commented, inevitably, that it was too bad she didn't have a handgun to put in the thug's face while she was begging him to stop and let the boy out. As Oleg says, sometimes you have to say no LOUDER.
Well, she looked at me kind of funny and said
"So what, she should have blown his head off right in front of her little son?"
Now, mom has long lived with dad's collection of guns. She has also hunted deer a long time, though she gave it up not long after I started going (I think she wanted dad to have someone to go with )
To be honest, I couldn't believe she said that.
Seriously, I understand the trauma that child would experience if his mother were forced to kill the thug. But how can it be worse than DYING by being dragged behind? Besides, chances are that if he looked back at her yelling at him, as the mother claims, he would have stopped if he'd seen a gun pointed at his face. I would.
I looked my mother in the eye and calmly said:
"No, she should have pointed it at him. That would give him a reason to stop, which begging wouldn't. And if he still refused to stop, then yes, of course she should have shot him right in front of the boy. How can you think that it would be better to let the boy die, or even just let him be taken by someone who is at least a carjacker, than to have him suffer some trauma over the methods used to save him?"
That started a long conversation. Eventually she agreed that it would be OK for me to go armed if it were legal but she would never want to because she doesn't think she's fast enough on the draw (bases that on pheasant hunting and she might be right.)
Urrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh. Didn't expect to have to convert mom.