The website Omaha.com has a column called Ask Amy, where readers can ask Amy Dickinson all sorts of questions. Amy is a columnist who has a rather lengthy resume. The point is, she isn’t new to this world and has been doing this for some time.
A recent question and answer routine showed up today, and the discussion from both sides will truly give you your ‘WTF Moment of the Day’.
The question revolved around a mother’s daughter, who apparently has recently become a gun owner. This fact, in the mother’s eyes, has instantly turned her daughter into a person who intends to engage in criminal activity.
Here’s the submitted information and question;
Dear Amy: This week, I discovered that my intelligent, hard-working, responsible 24-year-old daughter (who lives with me) is a gun owner! And it’s not a normal gun, either — it is a 40-caliber semi-automatic, and she has hollow-point bullets to go with it.
Amy, this is the kind of weapon a criminal would possess! She says it is for emergencies. There have only been two home invasions in our neighborhood in the last 11 years.
I’ve given her three choices: She can either give her weapon to me, sell it or move out in three weeks.
I love my daughter and would be so sad for her to move into a place that she would hardly be able to afford, but now I have to lock my bedroom door at night because I don’t know what she’s going to do.
Now she says that I don’t trust her, and is barely speaking to me. How can I convince her to stop endangering us?
via omaha.com
Let that sink in for a moment.
We aren’t sure where this concerned mother is located, but it’s a rather irrelevant question given the context.
When I first started reading, getting through the first paragraph, I was convinced that this was a person looking to troll Amy. I continued reading, and came to the conclusion that this is no troll, but rather a person who lives in their own little bubble on earth.
Let’s see what the expert says.
Dear Dumbfounded: According to my research, possessing hollow-point bullets is illegal in 11 states; is it legal in your state to own this sort of exploding ammunition?
Yep, we’re off to a bad start. Translation: “Maybe we can simply have your daughter arrested for illegal possession of ammunition!”
In a report published in 2015, researchers at the University of Chicago found that 31 percent of households reported having a firearm in 2014, down from about 48 percent in 1980.
According to this study, there are more guns, but concentrated in fewer households. Why must your household be one of them?
It’s possible that her daughter wanted a means to protect herself, or, she simply wanted to dive into the world of gun ownership. No crime in either case.
What’s next?
Where did your daughter get this weapon and ammunition? Has she received any safety training or certification? (Accidental gun death is a substantial risk of owning a gun.) Is she perhaps engaged in another activity outside of your household that exposes her to increased risks and makes her believe she needs to have a weapon?
Let’s assume that the daughter purchased everything legal. The second question posed by Amy is a legitimate one, as we always encourage every gun owner to seek out training. If all gun owners are safe, and train to become safer and better, negligent discharges would be a thing of the past.
One point for Amy.
Amy, I’m going to have to take your point away:
I have news for you: A locked bedroom door is no match for this weaponry; as I write this, just five days ago a father in South Carolina tragically shot and killed his own 23-year-old daughter through a closed door — when he mistook her for an intruder.
I agree with your ultimatum; I also weep that there is yet another (likely unsafe) gun owner in this country.
We report on many of these tragedies, alerting people that negligence does occur, and is completely unacceptable and 100% avoidable.
Instead of throwing someone out, especially family, for simply owning a firearm, why not sit down and have an actual conversation about it. If it’s truly a concern for this mother, maybe a compromise between mother and daughter can be achieved.
This much fear surrounding firearms is usually the result of a poor educational background with firearms. Those who fear them the most are the ones who understand them the least.
