[BearwWthoutBorders] Two comments on the gun rights issue: Jyri in Finland (a hunter) and Chip in Vermont (on self defense)

[Hunter Gray]

FROM JYRI IN FINLAND: EXCERPT (FROM A MUCH LONGER LETTER ON ANOTHER MATTER):

PS From a completely different context, and even supporting our stricter firearm regulations regime, I can understand the NRA position on training volunteer guards for schools. It's not a remedy for the underlying problems, but preventive action where such is needed but not provided. I would wager that the system of armed guards in urban  high schools over there may have saved a life or two.  Also, I find it misleading and dishonest in the debate to speak of the NRA as somehow facilitating these terrible events, not to mention the ignorance about semi-automatic rifles as assault weapons (i.e. automatics).  I've been taught in the military to use (and repeatedly clean) the latter in addition to carrying the damn things from one place to another for longer than I care to remember.   I might go with restrictions on magazine size, but that could just as well be cosmetic. There's also a lot of rubbish being written about hunting in the wake of these sad events. 


FROM CHIP:

As always, Hunter, this is a terrific piece of writing. And it strikes close to my heart, as I am a firm believer that we have a right to defend ourselves and our families. I am beginning to mention on some of the anti-firearm posts of Facebook friends that access to a firearm saved my Mother from rape and very likely death many years ago. 
   
 Long story short: When I was a teenager I had a .22 rifle, a .270 Winchester big game rifle, and a recently acquired Smith and Wesson 22/32 Kit Gun. While at school a couple of young men gained entrance to our home under the pretense of being from the telephone company. (This was in the day and place where homeowners often did not insist on seeing credentials before unlocking the door.) Once inside, they admitted the really weren't from the phone company, and afterward my Mother said it was obvious to her that both were hopped up on drugs and had intentions that were far from honorable. (She was a slim, attractive blond divorcee.) 

Under a pretense of needing to check up on "the baby" (There wasn't one, but quick thinking on her part.) she went into my room, grabbed the S&W and came back to the living room with it behind her back. "Please get up from my sofa and move off that throw rug." she said. When the one young man who was not twitching and jerking his head from side to side asked, "Why?" she pointed the S&W at them and replied, "Because I am going to shoot you and I don't want blood on my furniture or the rug." They left so fast they ripped the front screen door right off its hinges! (Post script: I kept that firearm unloaded and she didn't even take time to put any rounds in it. Yes, I told her that if you're going to defend yourself you really need to do it with a loaded firearm!)

   Anyhow, you can see why self-defense is as important to me as it was to you and your friends in the Deep South. If you look at my Facebook album, "Family and Ancestors", you'll see a couple of scans from a distant ancestor (by marriage) who in later years went by the name "Mrs. Captain Jack". Quite a character, who ran a bar and owned a silver mine in Colorado before the start of the 20th century. I have a quote from her in that album which I will add here as well: 
          " I do not fear man or devil; It is not in my blood, and if they can shoot any straighter than I,
          let them try it, for a .44 equalizes frail women and brute men, and all women ought to
          be able to protect themselves against such ruffians." 

Many thanks as always,

Chip (in Vermont)

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands.

See my extensive Movement Life Interview, done by Bruce
Hartford of Civil Rights Movement Veterans:
http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm
And see my reflection ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE:
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded in Fall 2012. Photos. Material on our Native
background.)  And see Personal Background Narrative: 
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm  (Updated into 2012) 

For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.
 http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
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