Yeah shifting the conversation to a semantic argument about whether it’s “really the guns” is just a tactic to muddy the waters and prevent people from reacting like normal humans to their terrible terrible situation and doing something to stop it.
Texas Poetry: My father loved guns. When he was angry enough he’d grab my mother and shove her against a wall. Sometimes he’d grab a gun. “This b*** wants me to kill her” he’d scream. Guns never protected me. He got better. He got worse. Good times bad times. The guns stayed where people couldn’t. Everyone is scared to call the cops when he threatens to kill himself again because then who the hell knows who all gets shot? Still, he had an arrest for assault with a deadly weapon. Saw it as a real insult to his good character. Privately he admitted he pulled a gun on her but he claimed he had the same lawyers who take care of the cops and he managed never to go to trial. He was most worried about being mistaken for the wrong kind of gun guy. I’d call him in the morning when he was sober and he’d tell me how worried he was about his guns and his gun rights. Guns didn’t get him the help he needed. Guns kept all of us from getting the help we needed. When he died I gave his guns away.
