Well.. I live in rural Alaska..
ok, not so far rural as to not have easy access to roads and malls and such,
but rural none the less.. we get Moose through our back yard on a regular
basis.. there have been wolf attacks not too far away recently, and rumor
has it we had a bear in the neighborhood last year that I didn't know about
at the time...
I'm not a big fan of guns.. I've shot a rifle a few times, target practise,
but then I've also shot a cross bow when I was much younger..
I've got 4 step kids who, while not with us year round, are here often
enough to be a consideration.. and hubby and I are trying to either have one
of our own or adopt.. so...

HUbby joined the National Guard a few years ago and decided that this was
the perfect excuse to go buy a really nice rifle. He hadn't had any guns
for a long time (Ok, he has several air soft guns, but they barely count...
though they do pack a nasty sting...) so he bought a rifle similar to the
one he has to shoot in the Guard..
We also went out and picked up some old lockers at one of the local thrift
stores and have that mounted in the lockable storage room in the basement..
His rifle is locked up in one of the lockers, generally partialy
disassembled, inside the storage room. The room is locked when the kids are
here, and there's really nothing in there they'd want to get in anyway..
it's more of a large unfinished crawl space, so not much fun to be in.
Ammo is kept in a seperate location, also well secured.
Hubby is now trying to convince me (with the recent onset of wolf attacks)
that it might be a good idea to get a small hand gun or soma rifle that I
would be comfortable with incase something enters the yard and I need to
either scare it off or defend myself, our dogs, or the kids...
I will admit that, while I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea.. I am
giving it thought.. esp now that my 19 year old step son, who was living
with us full time, has gone off to college.

I'm also a former Army brat.. and growing up, dad always kept his guns out
in the garage in a locked trunk. the only one that was kept in the house
was an old pearl handled pistol that was a family heirloom... dad didn't
usually know where it was, but i had found it one day while pulling out the
good china.. we didn't have any ammo for it at all.. and it was in a pretty
safe location.. we didn't play in the china hutch on pain of breaking
something and getting into BIG trouble.. heh.. it had been there for years
before I found it, not sure if my younger sibs ever knew it was there or
not..
When my dad passed away and mom was cleaning everything out to sell the
house (which they had started planning before my dad's sudden passing - most
likely blood clot as he'd had surgery about 2 weeks earlier.. but he was
diabetic, so..hard to know for sure..) when she got to the garage she found
several guns and just boxes and boxes of ammo.. she called the police and
had them come by several times to pick it all up.. even found and old
training granade.. that scared her.. heh.. luckily hubby (wh was also ex
military then) was there and confirmed it was a dummy training, non-loaded
one..

just goes to show though.. you never know what your quiet little neighbors
next door have laying around...

Davina
"Janet Boss" wrote in message
...
I know there are a lot of folks who "do" or don't "do" guns. I'm
trying to make sense of something that has happened locally.

A 16 year old just killed his 2 younger brothers and well as his
parents. He shot them with his father's gun.

While one may think that the family was for gun rights and this was a
tragic odd turn of events, the morning paper reports that the father's
brother "accidentally" killed his sister, at about the same ages, 30 or
so years ago. Supposedly he was "cleaning" the gun (who assigns that
task to a 15-16 yo home w/out an adult?) and his sister happened to walk
out of her bedroom and in front of his bedroom doorway, and it
accidentally shot and killed her. The mother of that crew (grandmother
of the current killer) has a lot of money and influence. I don't
believe for a second that was an "accident".

After such a tragic event in a young life, I just don't get keeping a
loaded (or easy access to ammo) gun in the house, with 3 teenagers.

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

"sionnach" wrote in message
...
My personal suspcion, I will say, is that more is going to come out about
things going on behind the facade
of "perfect family".


Yep. No such thing.

"Beth In Alaska" wrote in message
...

"sionnach" wrote in message
...
My personal suspcion, I will say, is that more is going to come out
about things going on behind the facade
of "perfect family".


Yep. No such thing.

There are quite a few links to more on this story at:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/loc...7.storygallery

I live within easy walking distance of the home where this tragedy
happened. The man from whom I purchased my house on Warren Road, in 1977,
also lived on Powers Avenue.

It would probably be easier to understand something like this if further
investigation reveals some sort of abuse or neglect or other contributing
factor. It is truly scary to think this could happen with no signs of
problems beforehand. I guess it can also be like that with dogs, in the
cases where the owners reported no aggressive behavior before a sudden
violent attack.

BTW, last night around 1 AM as I was walking Muttley, we saw someone in
what appeared to be a wheelchair with no lights, rolling silently down the
middle of Warren Road toward the reservoir. A strange place where I live!

Paul and Muttley