There is a house across the street that is full of people. It's a problem house. Dogs run around without a leash, scaring the postal worker and kids walking by, fights break out between the tenants and other neighbors, and there is just a sense of chaos around that place. Last night it escalated into real violence, ending up with the death of one of them. My relationship with them has centered on frustration around their lack of dog control as they cross the street and provoke mine, who are fenced, into a frenzy.
At 4AM last night, a loud bang woke me up and my dogs went out of control with their barking. The noise sounded about the same as when the electrical terminals exploded during the Ice Storm we had in February, so I thought another one had shorted out. When I opened the door, I found that there was a firetruck, ambulance and around ten cop cars out front. There was a lot of action on the front porch on that house across the street. I watched for about an hour, knowing that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. There was a lot of screaming and crying. I saw the medics go to the back of the house and come back with a body on a stretcher. I finally went back to bed and had nightmares for the rest of the night.
In the morning, the cops were still there. One of the tenants crossed the street and told me what had happened. Some girlfriend of some guy who didn't live there was at the house, the boyfriend came and when one of the guys opened the door to him, he was shot in the chest with a shotgun. Dead. Gone. I kept having images in my head of him playing with his dog, joking around. He was very sweet in his own way.
I moved to Kentucky four years ago from Chicago. Big city to small town, USA. Lots of differences, but all of the same social problems, although there is less organized gang violence here. Still, there is plenty of good and bad in both places. I was in the heart of the inner city in Chicago and had seen my share of bad stuff. I was at a pastor's house once and we ducked as a bullet came in through the kitchen window. I saw a teenager walking around with an ouzi. My apartment was broken into twice and once I nabbed the burglar. He slipped out of my grasp and jumped out of the window and ran, duh, TOWARDS the police station a block away. They caught him with my camera and boombox in hand. When I first moved to Chicago in 1984, I made a decision that I would not live in fear. I would try not to be stupid, but I knew that I was not the probable target and that if I were sensible, I'd probably be OK. Same thing here.
But, when I first arrived in Paducah, I had a part-time job at Hancock's of Paducah, one of the largest suppliers of specialty quilt fabrics in the world. As I cut fabric, I enjoyed the stories told by the sweet women who worked there. Repeatedly, they warned me that if someone broke into my house, I was to make sure to kill, not injure. Apparently, a thief can sue you if they come on to your property and your dog bites them. Later, I kenneled my dogs when I went out of town with this tiny, little, blond woman who had a bunch of horses, labs, and birds. When I picked them up, I told them that I was going to take the dogs to a forest preserve, Land Between the Lakes, so they could go swimming. She said she never goes there without her gun, but I should be OK with four dogs to protect me. It's a very strange thing to move from a place where the criminals have guns to another one where the citizens also subscribe to being armed. Feels like what my friend Abdul describes in Afghanistan, where everyone has rifles hanging from their kitchen ceilings.
Like most things in my life, I have contradictory feelings about all of this. I have no interest in owning a gun, I know that I would never defend myself that way, and I believe that the argument for owning these weapons are flawed and unconvincing. We live in a violent society which has violence on a pedestal. I'm part of it, too. I love well-done war movies, I listen to murder mysteries all the time, and I understand the need people have to feel like they need protection. Without my dogs, I would feel terribly vulnerable here. Yet, anyone with a gun could come in and shoot us all down in a few seconds. It's all a very sad and hopeless state of affairs. Friends report on the escalation of violence in large cities in South America where homes are now protected with high walls and topped off with electrical fences. They say it feels like one is a prisoner in their own home. I really don't see how we can change all of this except to choose peace and conflict resolution in our own small circles and hope that it will become contagious. I know that the law of the land here will never support gun control as it is in other industrialized nations, so I just have to hope that when a bullet comes my way, I can duck fast enough... By the way, the cops here in Paducah are really great. I have seen them deal with several crises and they are always calm, cool, collected and they get their job done. They caught the suspect!
The following facts are from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence:
FACT: In 2006, there were 30,896 gun deaths in the U.S: 12,791 homicides (41% of total deaths), 16,883 suicides (55% of total deaths), 642 unintentional shootings (2% of total deaths), 360 from legal intervention (1.2% of total deaths) and 220 from undetermined intent (.8% of total deaths).
(Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2009.)
"Standard Issue Smith & Wesson," by Stephanie Syjuco
FACT: Suicide is still the leading cause of firearm death in the U.S., representing 54.6% of total 2006 gun deaths nationwide. In 2006, the U.S. firearm suicide total was 16,883, a decrease from 2005 total of 17,002 gun suicides. Total gun suicides in Illinois for 2006 were 372, a decrease of 12% from the 2005 number 424. Over half of suicides in the U.S. are committed with firearms. (Numbers obtained from CDC National Center for Health Statistics mortality report online, 2009; and the American Association of Suicidology.) FACT: While handguns account for only one-third of all firearms owned in the United States, they account for more than two-thirds of all firearm-related deaths each year. A gun in the home is 4 times more likely to be involved in an unintentional shooting, 7 times more likely to be used to commit a criminal assault or homicide, and 11 times more likely to be used to attempt or commit suicide than to be used in self-defense. (A Kellerman, et al. Journal of Trauma, August 1998; Kellerman AL, Lee RK, Mercy JA, et al. “The Epidemiological Basis for the Prevention of Firearm Injuries.” Annu.Rev Public Health. 1991; 12:17-40.)
pistol own skin 2004 by Joanneke Meester, Netherlands
FACT: 59% of students in grades six through twelve know where to get a gun if they want one, and two thirds of these students say they can acquire a firearm within 24 hours. (Harvard School of Public Health.) FACT: As of 1994, 44 million Americans owned more than 192 million firearms, 65 million of which were handguns. Although there were enough guns to have provided every U.S. adult with one, only 25% of adults owned firearms. Seventy-four percent (74%) of gun owners possessed two or more firearms.
Precita Park memorial bench. Made with 130 melted guns in honor of a young couple gunned down by an unstable relative. Guns into Art.
FACT: Every two years more Americans die from firearm injuries than the total number of American soldiers killed during the 8-year Vietnam War. In 2003, the total number of people killed by guns in the United States was 30,136.
And, this one is from the American Bar Association:
"The overall firearm-related death rate among U.S. children younger than 15 years of age is nearly 12 times higher than among children in 25 other industrialized countries combined."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1997;46:101-105.
-Isaiah 2:4
