Back to my Story ..The Cannon

"They say if you outlaw guns, only outlaws and criminals will have guns. Well, shit, ain't those are precisely the people who need them?" George Carlin

Yes, I bought a gun, after alot of hair pulling. I don't feel so great about it. Now African-Americans in this town speak of killing me. "Now we gotta kill him instead of punking him", I guess I made a mistake buying that gun?
I was thinking about How would I be able to help myself and my relatives if an emergency happened. I used to be a pretty staunch advocate of gun control , and I still am. It's just that what I've been through in the last few years, and seen the way others can act, I begin to get concerned about what may happen in case the collective "lights go out". Particularly with all the "bad guys" with firearms. I think the one way to best rectify a situation in America of increasing crime and illicit drugs is to put firearms in reach of all qualified citizens, even being able to carry a concealed firearm. Hard to imagine that drug dealers and "Bad Guys" are going to hit you if you can shoot back. This way of thinking is a radical change from what I used to think. Like for example I might counter someone who would make a statement like that , by " Hey yeah, but what who do you consider a "Qualified citizen, perhaps the fellow who got a gun recently and shot up some people in a Shopping mall? He was probably a "law abiding citizen before he did that!"

Recently I had to call the police, while I was over my Mothers house. She got upset by some teenage hoodlums throwing stuff at her windows, so she ran out, got in her car and tried to corner the youths by cutting them off in her car. I thought she flipped her lid, confronting people like that, they might pull out gun, a knife, they could strike her and I'd have to defend her and I could end up getting killed! So I got on the phone to call the police...and the police wouldn't come out! At that time I didn't have a gun or anything, not that a gun would help in that type of situation. There was nothing I could do, eventually I went outside to see if everything was okay....fortunately for her alot of other neighbors were outside and they were having " a Group Powwow". She didn't get hurt. Now the neighbors I trying to figure her out.

Once I did Buy a "Shotgun", with my piece of mind and my mothers safety in mind. I got it on layaway after my sister moved out of my mother's house leaving her, and another little girl in that 2 story four bedroom house by themselves. I got the Shotgun much later, hopefully for her/my to use against intruders.

I got to shoot some skeet with it,to shoot that shotgun off legally, mind you all this controversy is going on around me concerning the Oaks hotel, the Troll and some hoodlums out to make my life miserable. And what does my mother do.....she takes my shotgun and it vanishes. Now there no shotgun to protect her with, I feel vulnerable trying to comfort/protect my mother in that house without anything. I complain to her about the missing shotgun, but she won't return it.Maybe about a year later I decide I need a gun for myself mostly, that I can keep around me. But I cannot get another shotgun, I don't have the personal space, plus the place I brought the first shotgun , doesn't do lay-aways anymore.

I found a Gun Shop where I can get a firearm on layaway, cause I didn't have much money and guns tend to be expensive these days. You can easily spend a 1/2 a Grand on a Gun, unless you get an illegal firearm which I hear are plentiful on the streets. A shotgun in California is easy to get. You can get one without a Firearms training card (which I didn't have at the time), and there inexpensive and a good defense against most types of handguns.
In fact most of the 45's, semi-auto's this one dealer had was up into a thousand dollars. The Revolvers he had out were mostly over $500.00 they came with laser sights he said. I remember the old days when I used to go to my favorite/hated Gun shop, "Traders" in nearby San Leandro, California.

"Traders" had a good selection of firearms there, and you could buy a "Rossi" revolver there for under 299.00, as well as alots of used, "Smith and Wesson" revolvers that were affordable. I almost brought a .357 revolver there but changed my mind at the last minute. I could never bring myself to buy a gun there, and I was philosophically against guns anyway, but whenever I went to "Traders", business was always booming. Later they started devoting a good selection of there firearms for law enforcement personnel only. I was jealous, they got the best selection. I guess I was fascinated with firearms. probably more than what is healthy for me.


Continued later....