(This scene from Gundown is part of a confrontation between gun owners protesting gun safety laws and a leader that helped enact them. Download a free ebook of Gundown here.)
Sam said, “We aren’t safe.” He pulled his son closer to him. “Our schools aren’t safe.”
“You want his teachers armed with guns?”
The woman spoke up. “There’s a school district in Texas did that.”
Noah said to her, “Do you have a child in school?” When she shook her head, he turned back to Sam. “So, do you want your son’s teacher carrying a gun?”
Sam nodded. “Crazy people see signs that say ‘Gun-Free Zone’ and attack schools, and we need to defend them. It wouldn’t happen if everybody knew teachers were packing.”
After a chorus of “Yeah” and “Damn straight” died down, Noah said, “But what if your son’s teacher is the one who goes crazy?”
“Oh, she wouldn’t—”
“She could. What if a bad day in class pushes her over the top and she takes the lethal weapon that you want her to carry and shoots your son dead?”
“She wouldn’t—”
“She could. Some other teacher could. What do you do then? Shoot her? And then go to your son’s funeral?” Sam’s son’s eyes widened, and he looked up at his dad. Noah hated talking this way in front of the boy, but there wasn’t really much choice, was there?
He unholstered his stopper* and held it up for all to see. “Now, what if that teacher has a stopper instead? If a crazy guy with a lethal weapon attacks, she has a chance to stop him. If the teacher goes nuts, it’ll be darned hard for her to wipe out a classroom full of kids with a stopper . . . or a knife . . . or just about any weapon other than a gun.”
*Note: a nonlethal “stopper” is a small compressed air pistol that shoots rounds that can put someone to sleep, or a pepper-type spray, or a sticky substance that can bind hands, etc.
Gundown is a novel of an alternative America which gun manufacturers have gotten behind gun safety and helped enact new laws in one state that eliminate most lethal firearms but also give citizens weapons for nonlethal self-defense—the stoppers.
My sole goal is to provoke new thinking. So I’m giving Gundown to anyone who wants it.
Download a free ebook of Gundown here (that’s www.gundownload.com.) It’s available in print at cost at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
Pass the word.