AMonger
Veteran Expediter
So I visit my family for the holidays, and in the evening some family goes home and my sister and I watch tv. We watch Panic 911, a new series that uses 911 audio and dramatizes it. You periodically see a clock running on the screen showing how long the caller has been on the line, how far away the police are, etc. The calls are chilling, listening as a terrified woman tells a dispatcher the intruder is coming up the stairs right now, she can see his face, and she screams, "GET OUT! GET AWAY FROM ME! NO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" One's heart rate really jumps as one listens.
Now, my sister is no dummy. She's got an MBA, an excellent job with a company everyone knows of, and it's hard to put one over on her. She watches Shark Tank and spots all the mistakes people are making and anticipates the objections the sharks are going to raise, and what the contestants would have/could have/should have done, etc. But on the subject of guns, she's pure emotion. Not just recently; she always has been. And she can raise an issue about guns, purely emotional, and I can respond with facts, numbers, studies, reason, history, etc., and it doesn't make a dent.
When we were watching Panic 911, there was one of those home invasion calls in which a pregnant woman calls 911, saying her dogs are staring downstairs and freaking out, and they're usually very calm dogs. The operator sends some units, but they're 10 minutes away. Meanwhile, the intruder is on his way up the steps and confronts her in the kitchen. He attacks her, ripping the phone out of her hand and strangling her with the cord, and starts to rape her. Eventually, the cops get there, force the door and storm in. The rapist is 6'2" and 320 lbs., and it takes 5 cops to take him down and get him cuffed.
Back up to the point where the rapist confronts her in the kitchen and strangles her with the phone cord. I said, "Too bad she didn't have a gun." That always sets my sister off.
"Yeah, then she could have been arrested or sued!" She had all sorts of objections. Usually it includes "The rapist will just take it from her and use it on her," but not this time.
I rebutted, but she have me a talk-to-the-hand and said, "I don't want to hear it!"
The last thing I said was that a gun makes her his equal, which should make it clear, but she just won't examine the subject any way other than emotionally, and now tens of millions of Americans think like her. I'd hate to think we've reached a tipping point on this, too.
Now, my sister is no dummy. She's got an MBA, an excellent job with a company everyone knows of, and it's hard to put one over on her. She watches Shark Tank and spots all the mistakes people are making and anticipates the objections the sharks are going to raise, and what the contestants would have/could have/should have done, etc. But on the subject of guns, she's pure emotion. Not just recently; she always has been. And she can raise an issue about guns, purely emotional, and I can respond with facts, numbers, studies, reason, history, etc., and it doesn't make a dent.
When we were watching Panic 911, there was one of those home invasion calls in which a pregnant woman calls 911, saying her dogs are staring downstairs and freaking out, and they're usually very calm dogs. The operator sends some units, but they're 10 minutes away. Meanwhile, the intruder is on his way up the steps and confronts her in the kitchen. He attacks her, ripping the phone out of her hand and strangling her with the cord, and starts to rape her. Eventually, the cops get there, force the door and storm in. The rapist is 6'2" and 320 lbs., and it takes 5 cops to take him down and get him cuffed.
Back up to the point where the rapist confronts her in the kitchen and strangles her with the phone cord. I said, "Too bad she didn't have a gun." That always sets my sister off.
"Yeah, then she could have been arrested or sued!" She had all sorts of objections. Usually it includes "The rapist will just take it from her and use it on her," but not this time.
I rebutted, but she have me a talk-to-the-hand and said, "I don't want to hear it!"
The last thing I said was that a gun makes her his equal, which should make it clear, but she just won't examine the subject any way other than emotionally, and now tens of millions of Americans think like her. I'd hate to think we've reached a tipping point on this, too.
