It's amazing to me at times to see how life experiences can deepen and expand our perspective concerning different subjects. I have always been a huge supporter of our Second Amendment. It often bothers me when people say disparaging things about owning firearms, because to me it shows, very simply, a huge lack of knowledge of U.S. history, and why our founding fathers even gave us the 2nd Amdment in the very first place. As the old saying goes, those who don't know their history are bound to repeat it.
Now, I have to admit that my thoughts on this issue have been shaped rather dramatically by the presence, for 3 years, of a neighbor who was not only a schizophrenic, but who also would take to literally stalking my two girls and I every time we stepped out of our house. If we were anywhere within visual range of his house, and he was aware we were out and about in the yard, he would jump in his car and start circling the block. Sometimes this just made me mad; other times, it became unnerving. Eventually, he moved away, but three years of being on high alert, with a husband who frequently worked out of town for 2-3 days on end, was enough to make me appreciate the value of owning firearms for self-defense.
To top this off, just two weeks ago I was awakened in the night by the sound of our basement door, which opens into the dining room, being rattled against the chair I had wedged under the door-knob (it's a cheap hollow door, so I have been reinforcing it at night). With five children, three of them babies, in the house, I am a light sleeper. I have been awakened numerous times over the past seven years; I can almost always place the sound I heard within just a minute or two. I could be wrong about what took place here a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think so. The rattling downstairs woke me from a sound sleep through the motors and fans of two air conditioners. I sat up, turned on my lamp and shut one air conditioner off, and listened intently. After about 3 minutes, I heard what sounded like a man's voice exclaim something, together with something falling in the basement. I should add that our basement is currently all dug out. We are putting in an entirely new foundation and walls, and the basement stairwell is open directly to the outside right now. I think it was after this second sound that I grabbed my gun. I sleep with a loaded handgun by my bed when Adam is gone. Most of the time it is locked up, but when he is working nights, I take it out of the safe and put it in a locked holster in the dresser drawer by the bed. I grabbed this, and the phone. After another four minutes of intense listening and prayer, I heard a third noise, and this is when I finally called 911. While waiting for the sherrifs to arrive at 2:30 a.m., I stayed on the phone with the dispatcher, who commented a couple of times about how calm I was staying. I refrained from telling him (I didn't want him worrying about the deputies coming to the house) that it is much easier to be calm when you have a loaded gun by your side. Also, when you are a mom with a house full of children/babies, panicking really isn't an option.
The deputy sherrif's didn't find anyone when they got to the house, but they did inform me that they had received a call just a few hours earlier about a "suspicious" tansient at the bar just two blocks from our house. I strongly suspect that whoever was trying to break in thought the house was empty. Not everyone realizes you can live in a house with the basement dug out like ours is right now. He was either looking for some small valuables to nab, or a free place to crash for the night. At any rate, my locked doors were his best friend that night. Otherwise, he could potentially have been staring at the wrong end of my handgun.
I sincerely hope I never have to use my gun to defend my children or myself, but I am here to say that I will use it if necessary. One of the biggest realizations I had to come to grips with after becoming a mom was that just hiding or running isn't an option when you have children. When Adam is out of the house, keeping them safe is my job as their mother. Do I believe God has a hand in this as well? Absolutely. I believe it was God who gave me the nudge to wake up; who gave the discernment to know what the sounds were that I heard, and who prompted me to call 911. He is also the one who directed my husband to equip me to defend myself should the need arise, a few years ago when the situation with this other neighbor was becoming unsettling.
And finally, for all the "tree-huggers" who sincerely believe animals should have more rights than humans when it comes to self-defense, allow me to say this; more gun laws will never stop bad guys from having guns. Remember the prohibition days? (Here again - the value of knowing your history helps....) In owning a gun and being prepared to use one, I would like to point out that I am doing no more and no less than any wild animal would, in readiness to defend her young and her own life. We have all heard the stories of a wild bear or big cat somewhere attacking a human, only to discover that it was just a mommy defending her young, who were in hiding nearby. Whenever we hear those stories, we somehow instinctively know that those animals were simply doing their jobs, as moms, and the unfortunate victim should have stayed away. Of course, the politically correcct media plays this angle up - subtly, but effectively. Well, I'm here to say that I'm a mommy too, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect my babies, as well, even if - perhaps especially if - it requires the use of firearms. My advice to you is, to do the same. And don't surprise me in the middle of the night.
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