What would Mr. Rodgers do?

Now at the end of my last rant, I mentioned blowing off someones head with a Glock for the mere inconvenience of spoiling the Bears game for me. A bit of an exaggeration, and no I am not going to recant or apologize. That's the beauty of blogs. I just wanted to talk about the whole issue of guns in the home.

Now I don't own a gun, yet, but that may soon change. (For those of you out there considering burglarizing my house, I do have a pitching wedge by the bed. I considered a long iron, but I like the added heft of the wedge, as well as the shorter shaft thus enabling a less cumbersome swing inside the confines of the bedroom.) A few recent articles in the paper have begun to sway me. Last week I brought the attention of two stories in the same paper to the wife's eyes. One was the tragic story of the downstate IL family who were found murdered in their small town home. Five dead, no one in custody. The second was that of an intruder shot to death by a home owner after a break-in in Chicago. Now if you had to pick one, which family would you rather be?

The argument for a gun basically states itself. It's the counter argument that's gets a little fuzzy. Both of my kids are responsible teenagers, no worry about them playing with daddy's "toy". Both are old enough to know the dangers, and yes both are reaching that dreaded age where the talk of ready access to a suicide weapon can't be overlooked. Also we don't live in some huge, opulent house that screams, "Come rob me!!", our neighborhood is modest and quiet in a supposedly tranquil suburb. But I believe now it is the prudent thing to do. And the wife agrees with me. It was the third article in this morning's paper that maybe convinced me.

Right across town, in another cul-de-sac, in another relatively modest neighborhood, a guy wakes up to find an intruder in the house. Turns out the home owner catches the guy by sitting on him on the front lawn until police arrived. I guess it was lucky for each man that neither one had a gun. I don't think I want to take the chance that 1) the guy who breaks into my house is unarmed, or 2) that he is one of the 2% of the population the I actually outweigh. Besides, my golf swing is good, but it's not what it used to be.

So it looks like gun store, here I come. Going to go with a nice loud shotgun. Nothing like the distinct sound of that chck-chck a shotgun makes when you cock the weapon. Hell that sound alone should be enough to send intruders scampering away in fear. Now that last article listed the streets of both accoster and accostee, and you know what? They were friggin neighbors. That's right, some loser tried to rob his own neighbor. What would Mr. Rodgers sing about now?