by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
I've undoubtedly told this family anecdote in this space before, so if you are already familiar with it, bear with me - because I am using it to lead into a current news story that you may not have heard.
Years ago my while my father was on a vacation in Florida, somebody tried to break into his house. My dad, who was elderly at the time, lived in a fairly new house which he kept reasonably secure, and the would-be thieves were apparently scared off after breaking a window or doing some other damage to the house that did not result in entry. When Dad returned from his respite in the sun and discovered the burglary attempt, he was predictably upset. I remember asking, in somewhat of a state of bewilderment, what he had in the house that thrives could possibly want, and he replied,"My guns."
Dad always kept several guns in the house, including one in a drawer on his bedside table. If somebody broke in, he thought that he could go Full Rambo and and protect himself and his stack of "Gunsmoke" tapes. What he was actually doing by having guns and ammunition at the ready was providing an incentive for people to break in - and, if he was able to pull a gun and challenge a burglar, chances are the old man, well into his eighties, would have been the one getting shot.
But our culture - and the NRA - bury us in the nonsense that having guns make us safer. Thousands and thousands of accidental shootings in America each year would argue otherwise, but still Americans cling to their guns like toddlers with pacifiers.
Every day there are stories of children accidentally shooting other children or family members because a gun was left unsecured in a home. This week there was a sibling-on-sibling shooting not too far from where I live, only these siblings were adults. It happened in the small town of Boss, Missouri (population 288 and declining) on the eastern edge of rural Dent County.
Coincidentally, Dent County is the home of our area Congressman, a Republican named Jason Smith who has himself pocketed NRA donations.
The Dent County sheriff's office responded to a call this past Sunday from the mother of the two men who reported a shooting at one of their homes. When deputies arrived they found 42-year-old Phillip Tinker dead from a gunshot wound inside of his home. Th sheriff's officers then proceeded to the nearby home of his brother, Dennis Dyer, who was suspected of being the shooter. As they surrounded that home, they saw smoke coming out of the structure and heard gunshots. A body believed to be that of the brother was found inside, an apparent suicide.
But, as Paul Harvey used to tell us, there was more to the story. What could have possibly stirred up enough anger between these two brothers that it resulted in a murder-suicide? It turns out they were arguing over a gun!
I guess now the gun will go to Mother.
And it is undoubtedly tacky to make this observation, considering two people have died, but that gun has probably cost Donald Trump and Jason Smith two sure votes in the 2020 election.
Guns, you see, have consequences.
Citizen Journalist
I've undoubtedly told this family anecdote in this space before, so if you are already familiar with it, bear with me - because I am using it to lead into a current news story that you may not have heard.
Years ago my while my father was on a vacation in Florida, somebody tried to break into his house. My dad, who was elderly at the time, lived in a fairly new house which he kept reasonably secure, and the would-be thieves were apparently scared off after breaking a window or doing some other damage to the house that did not result in entry. When Dad returned from his respite in the sun and discovered the burglary attempt, he was predictably upset. I remember asking, in somewhat of a state of bewilderment, what he had in the house that thrives could possibly want, and he replied,"My guns."
Dad always kept several guns in the house, including one in a drawer on his bedside table. If somebody broke in, he thought that he could go Full Rambo and and protect himself and his stack of "Gunsmoke" tapes. What he was actually doing by having guns and ammunition at the ready was providing an incentive for people to break in - and, if he was able to pull a gun and challenge a burglar, chances are the old man, well into his eighties, would have been the one getting shot.
But our culture - and the NRA - bury us in the nonsense that having guns make us safer. Thousands and thousands of accidental shootings in America each year would argue otherwise, but still Americans cling to their guns like toddlers with pacifiers.
Every day there are stories of children accidentally shooting other children or family members because a gun was left unsecured in a home. This week there was a sibling-on-sibling shooting not too far from where I live, only these siblings were adults. It happened in the small town of Boss, Missouri (population 288 and declining) on the eastern edge of rural Dent County.
Coincidentally, Dent County is the home of our area Congressman, a Republican named Jason Smith who has himself pocketed NRA donations.
The Dent County sheriff's office responded to a call this past Sunday from the mother of the two men who reported a shooting at one of their homes. When deputies arrived they found 42-year-old Phillip Tinker dead from a gunshot wound inside of his home. Th sheriff's officers then proceeded to the nearby home of his brother, Dennis Dyer, who was suspected of being the shooter. As they surrounded that home, they saw smoke coming out of the structure and heard gunshots. A body believed to be that of the brother was found inside, an apparent suicide.
But, as Paul Harvey used to tell us, there was more to the story. What could have possibly stirred up enough anger between these two brothers that it resulted in a murder-suicide? It turns out they were arguing over a gun!
I guess now the gun will go to Mother.
And it is undoubtedly tacky to make this observation, considering two people have died, but that gun has probably cost Donald Trump and Jason Smith two sure votes in the 2020 election.
Guns, you see, have consequences.
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