Gun Control: We haz that

Dilbert discusses gun control.

the only school shooting where I knew people was done by a mentally disturbed boy who stole his grandfather's rifles and pistols to do it. His grandfather was a cop, and took the boy in because of a terrible family situation. So gun control would not have stopped that shooting.

my take: unless you know guns and regularly shoot so you know how to shoot, and unless you mentally practice what to do in a bad situation, the gun is not going to help because you will probably freeze.

(NON PC observation: shooting in video games gives you this type of expertise...not my opinion but that of the military)

Sort of like CPR: We docs practice all the time and go into automatic action when we do it.

Here in the Philippines, we have security guards with guns and shotguns all over the place guarding banks and shops: and you are frisked when you go into the mall.

But few ordinary folks own guns.. or maybe I should say legally own guns, because Marcos confiscated all guns in the Philippines years ago

Yes, some people have legal guns, the dirty little secret in the Philippines is that most middle class folks have an illegal gun hidden in the closet.

Why have a gun? Well, in the last few years, we have had several old people killed in break-ins by thieves, one a US Navy vet with a gun who didn't get it out in time.

The present mayor has had at least two hits against his family by the previous mayors' family. The first hit killed five people including our nephew in the crossfire. The second was on the way home from one of our cousin's funerals, and killed four in the crossfire. There have been at least two "pay back" murders against those behind the hits.

However, one of our cousins killed his brother with a shotgun he owned for protection at the farm. His brother was drunk and angry (maybe on shabu too) and attacked him while he was sleeping... the sleeping brother work up and shot him in self defense, aiming low so as not to kill him, but one of the pellets hit him in a leg artery so he bled to death. Without that gun, that tragedy might not have happened...

My grandfather was a cop, and knew of cases where kids got their father's service gun and accidentally shot a sibling. So we never had guns in our house.

But my husband, a WWII vet, and a doctor who carried narcotics in the car for house calls, always had a pistol with him. Indeed, when we first married and visited the Philippines, he took out his WWII submachine gun from the closet where he had it hidden and cleaned it... he gave that and his pistol away after he had a stroke, alas, so when crime went up in our neighborhood, we did worry about being robbed or worse.

But now things are safer, thanks to the gangs being decimated by EJK or by fighting among themselves.

Yes, I know: The Catholic church last weekend had a couple thousand demonstrating against EJK.

But one wonders where they are when the bishops get photo ops with crooked politicians who take bribes from drug smugglers etc. (and steal government money sent to help the poor).

The mayor behind our nephew's murder was finally indicted after many years of giving gifts to someone to delay the indictment, but when Aquino became president and started cleaning things up, the ex mayo was indicted but escaped punishment because he "disappeared"... he died a few months after they discovered he was living in Manila, on dialysis. Duh.

And he was buried in a fancy maseoleum, after a Catholic funeral complete with Knights of Columbus body guard.

He donated to the local church, of course.

Short story: At the fiesta mass with the bishop presiding a year after our cousin was killed, that guy sat in the front of church in a place for VIPs with his body guards, and when our cousin Chona went up to give her donation during the mass, she saw him and waved her fist in his face saying : You... YOU...

it caused a bit of a stir, and of course, the bishop saw her, and got the message, because during the next election cycle, the bishop held a mass and had all the local politicians take an oath they would not use violence.

It worked: There was no shooting until after the election...