So, anyway ... an example of what confuses me about guns, or, more specifically, their owners:
Not long ago, some folks who live two floors below me threw a party. Yes, there were a few things wrong with the party, but nothing major; just some noise and the fact that when it was shut down, the lessees on the apartment were nowhere to be found. The party didn't bother me at the time; I defer to Friday and Saturday nights as the nights most working folks seem to like to run late. Of course, the guy who lives across the hall from the party felt differently; I can certainly understand why.
But here's the strange thing: when I was talking to the complaining neighbor about it a couple days later, he mentioned that he had "loaded up the Glock". I chose not to be inquisitional; the politics of ethnicity seemed to be at play, but that runs both ways, and includes as well as the white man's paranoia, the Hispanic's machismo. He complained about the party; big deal. He loaded the Glock in case any of the partygoers had anything to say after the festivities were shut down.
To the one, I understand his annoyance at the party; after all, his five month-old grandson was staying overnight. To the other, I was confused. Loading up the Glock with a five month-old present? Yes, I know the odds are exceptionally slim, but in this state it seems you can accidentally discharge a firearm through the wall of the neighbor's apartment, kill a sleeping infant, and walk away without having to answer for your actions. (That the shooter was drunk on that occasion is even more puzzling, but irrelevant; you can also accidentally shoot a schoolteacher attending to a kindergarten student when you're sober and not have to answer for it.)
Is this really how gun owners think, though? Had it been me, or someone not Hispanic, would my neighbor have thought differently? It's not even fair to assign the ethnic tension to him; it didn't come up. But I'm struggling to understand why the Glock was loaded up. It seems an overreaction, and it seems at least fair to qestion the wisdom of toting around a loaded gun while in a state of ire while caring for a five month-old.
At any rate, I find the Glock more problematic than the party. I mean, I like the guy; he doesn't seem so irrational when I'm talking to him. But ... what?
Seriously? There's a party next door and you load up the Glock? When it's the white kids who share a wall with him, he doesn't load up the Glock.
And yet, regardless of the potential racial politics, is a party next door really a reason to load up the Glock?
Gun owners seem to itch for a reason to lock 'n' load. What gives?