Why certain people should NOT own guns...

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SOC_chief_dave

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I will keep my own political beliefs out of this "minor" rant, but I do feel a good number of people are NOT good candidates for firearm ownership.

Yesterday, my father came home from a month long hospital stay, after having 6 surgeries for oral cancer, and we were getting him situated, speaking to the home health care nurse, etc. My father asked to see my children, so I was getting ready to go get them from their visit at my in-laws.

I had been researching airsoft guns (got offered a sponsorship to play professionally) and had left a couple of potential candidates up on my laptop screen. Naturally, my [stepmother] saw and began her rant about how I need to focus my attention on this or that, etc. I told her "Look, I like to shoot. I like paintball and airsoft. I'm a recovering addict, and I have NO hobbies and I do nothing with my spare time, so I'm going to enjoy what little spare time I have on the weekends and get exercise doing something other than chasing my kids around the house and back yard. It will help keep me busy and out of drugs too." She made a comment about how I don't need to buy a new gun, apparently not noticing "airsoft" in big bold letters and the orange tips on everything. There was a short exchange about how if you don't like guns, don't own one, I don't bring mine around here because it obviously offends you, etc.

OUT OF THE BLUE she goes "I actually own a gun, I keep it loaded for home protection! I don't know where it's at, but I have one..."

I was appalled.

My TODDLERS play in the closets and bedrooms of their house, and you're telling me that you don't have a clue where your LOADED 9mm is!??!??!?! (SMH)

I eventually went looking and found the weapon in between a couple pairs of jeans out of reach, but it still doesn't change the fact that some [people] just can't be trusted with anything more dangerous than string...
 
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That's the problem with freedom! Some people are too immature to have it. Still we have to give it to them.
 
The flip side to this would be she regretted telling you she owned a firearm and in a poor attempt to dissuade you from asking to see it she claimed she didn't know where it was.
I could be wrong though.

Regardless, the fact that you found an unsecured firearm at a place where your children play would be sufficient reason to not let them back until the guns were properly secured.
 
The woman is a gold digging narcissistic liar. I wouldn't doubt it, but I will not be allowing my children over anyway as it seems to be a psychologically unfit environment.
 
I would keep my kids away. This gun isn't her only opportunity to hurt them...

With your Eddie the Eagle training, they likely know how to handle that.
 
The woman is a gold digging narcissistic liar.
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From that comment alone your attitude toward her seems some what negative before you even get to the firearm. You dislike her that’s easly seen. The fact that she has a firearm is none of your business, it is her right.
The fact that she didn’t know where it was and did not have it stored in a safe manner does say that she needs help, but confiscation? Taking away her right to own one?
I totally understand you’re being concerned about your children’s safety and you should be. But at the same time you need to be concerned about their safety. If they are not capable of taking care of a firearm properly you need to set down with them and tell them of your concerns. And let them make a rational decision on getting rid of it or getting proper storage.
but I will not be allowing my children over anyway as it seems to be a psychologically unfit environment.
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From your name calling it sounds like you were looking for an excuse to keep your children from her. And that is your right. But it also sounds like you made up your mind before the gun issue came up.
 
Thanks for the positive feedback, folks. :)

@Ozzieman; I can appreciate playing devil's advocate, but I have to disagree politely with you on some things here...

I have no problem with her having a firearm. It IS her prerogative. I have a problem with a lack of responsibility. Did I ever say confiscation? No. I never said she shouldn't have the right to own one either. I simply said she probably shouldn't have one.

Name calling? Okay, gold digging IS name calling. I will give you that. Malignant narcissistic personality disorder? That is her diagnosis. The woman is on psych meds and is a known compulsive liar, and a manipulator as well. She has verbal conflicts with almost everyone we know because of this. She has not come across as ever being physically hostile, however. She DID once tell her daughter to go to the store in her car, then called the police seconds after she left, reported it stolen, and had her daughter stuck in a mental institution, then shipped her back to her father out of state.

Now, I give people a certain amount of leeway with the garbage they pull. Everyone lies, even white lies. People have quirks, personality defects, and do some really off things. No one is perfect, least of all myself. HOWEVER - It's one thing to play mental games with me and my wife, its another to give me the idea my children have been in danger the whole time (real, or imagined) just because I have interests in a hobby that are on my own time, place, and money and she does not approve.

If they want to see the grand kids, they can come to my house. It allows me to keep the ball in my court with safety issues. There is no intent to keep the children away; I am merely protecting them from foolishness.
 
Dick Hates

Friend of my Ex's family, who had to warn him truthfully that if he ever touched their mother they'd bury him somewhere, Dick was kicked out of his own family's house when his apparently abused mother sold it and abandoned him to move cross-country. Dick is a fairly stupid and lazy man-child who hates everyone, including women, and everything deeply. When out in public in front of people he puts on a performance, talking loudly so everyone can hear him tell them he likes movies from the good ol' days and how much he hates them as he insults and threatens them not quite to their faces but close... He recently lost a front tooth from one of those episodes apparently in a bar for his almost 60th birthday.

I lend him others but won't lend him videos with "assault weapons" in them anymore because he "hates them" too (arguing they should be banned because there was a neighbor he hated who shouldn't be allowed to own one and that a .30-30 made with real wood is good enough, plus he shouldn't watch violent things IMO). He insists on calling shotguns "rifles" -- I'm not sure he actually understands the difference -- so ended up with a scoped 12 gauge pump-action rifled shotgun by mistake once.

Today he works as a part time Boy-Friday out of a childhood schoolmate's generosity, rents a room in someone's house whom he hates, has a checking account for the first time in his life and just a trunk full of personal posessions including only a .22 bolt action (probably 'cause "it's old fashioned, and, uhhh, I like da wood").

He probably shouldn't have even that... I would not be super-surprised if he hurts someone or himself with it, but it's a free country, sorta.

SOC Chief Dave -- frisk MIL when she comes over and don't let her back to her car and in the house again unsupervised!!!
 
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@Snyper; Probably. I imagine she was trying to get under my skin and upset me.

@MattSchlock; I will have my father do the frisking. I don't need to be accused of rape. LOL
 
To be honest SOC after hearing this story. I'm not sure anyone in your family should own a gun. Everyone has issues that happen within a family. It's just a fact of life. The lesson that needs to be learned is not to spew it across the internet. Not everyone wants or needs to know about it. Just a thought, but you do what you feel is best.

Jim
 
SOC you didnt state how old your toddlers are but in any case it is up to you their parent to educate them about firearms because they will undoubtably encounter one someplace else and proper training on your part with them may make the difference. It sure has with my niece and nephews.
 
This is about one family's drama, and it doesn't really have any applicable lessons to the community in general.

Dave, I wish you luck in handling the situation, but we don't need to be airing that stuff out here.
 
Tom Servo ~

I agree with the closure, which is the right call for the reasons you stated. But ... there IS an important lesson here. Three of 'em, in fact, for every parent who owns guns and also for those that don't.

1) Don’t assume that your children will never see a loaded gun, just because you lock your guns up. Yes, if you own a gun, you should lock it up whenever it’s not under the immediate control of a responsible adult. And so should every responsible gun owner! But don’t fool yourself: not everyone has gotten that memo.

That brings us to the next point.

2) Don’t assume that people who hate guns don’t own them. Sometimes they do. Sometimes you’ve misunderstood someone’s “hatred” of guns and it’s really something else entirely — a distaste for a political position, a distrust of the people listening to the conversation, some kind of rhetorical point or just a little misdirection so they won’t have to deal with a touchy subject. Sometimes the people you least expect to own guns, do. And (see point #1) sometimes, those people store their guns in incredibly stupid ways.

Which brings us to the most important point of all:

3) Your kids need to know what to do if they find a gun. This is true even if you never intend to take your children to the range with you, even if you hate guns, even if you think that nobody in your life will ever expose your kids to guns, even if your kids are small and irresponsible little people. You might even think it’s awful that you have to teach your kids how stay safe around firearms. But that does not change the world around you even one tiny bit. It doesn’t change your neighbors, your relatives, or your friends. More than half the homes in America have guns in them and I guarantee you that the gun ownership in every single one of those homes is a surprise to somebody.

If you want to protect yourself and the people you love, you must work with the world where you actually live, not the world you wish you lived in.

If you see a gun, STOP!
Don’t touch it.
Leave the area.
Tell an adult.​
 
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