So, a 14 year old kid in Laveen - about 10 miles west of me - is watching his younger siblings in their home. Parents are wherever.  Doors locked.  Woman comes up to the door - various accounts on the net so far - but she knocks on the door, the kid doesn't open it.  Kid goes up to dad's room, grabs a pistol in time to find a man breaking down the door and aiming a rifle at him.  Kid shoots the man, who is now in serious condition.

Now, where would this situation be at right now if that kid didn't have access to that gun?  Would those kids in that house be alive?  You can be rest assured that whatever the conclusion, it would not be good.

And you want to take away gun rights from the citizens?  Well, that's just one story.  Yes, that's true, one story in a sea of stories of people defending themselves against would-be thieves, robbers and killers.  Mine's sitting within arm's reach.  It's loaded and another clip in the case with it.  Every time I read something like this, just solidifies in me all the more the declaration of  what I believe to be a God-given right to defend yourself and to use deadly force to do so if necessary.

I do hope they get that kid some counselling, yes, he's going to need it, maybe the whole family considering what I read about the dad being beside himself and definitely not quite all here at this point in time.  Can you blame him?  Imagine coming home to find a legion of police cars in front of your house and then finding out your oldest son just shot a would-be intruder. The thoughts that would go through your head - what if?  The what-if's.  What if he hadn't shot that man?  Boy, I can imagine a lot of potential scenarios going through those parent's minds.

Someone told me the other day to "never say never" when it comes to the government - especially this current White House administration - in the desire to take away gun rights.  I wouldn't go quite so far as to never say it isn't going to happen. but I have my doubts.  There may be a gradual erosion of those rights over time if people don't stand up to it - but a total elimination of the right to bear arms?  There would have to be a change to the nation's Constitution to do that.

Well, changing the subject, Caleb just called.  He asked me to bring up his laptop computer next time I'm at mom's property.  It's a little bit of a drive - maybe another 40 miles - to the camp.  But it's a beautiful, lovely drive up there on the Rim and I don't mind doing it.  I told him this coming Saturday, as long as everything goes right, I would be up at mom's place in my trailer - was going to do that anyway - so I figured go visit him, visit with camp management, prolly not spend too much time there but will be nice to see him. They have weekends off.  Kids come up on Mondays and leave on Fridays. Camp staff is not allowed to use electronic devices excepting maybe cellphones during the week when the kids are there - which is a good thing, a real-life, current example that you don't have to have computers everywhere you go.

But I don't want to speak as a hypocrite, since I have come to love the internet and the vast wealth of information to be found on it, far above and beyond news sources and Facebook and all the rest of the entertainment stuff.   We used to live without computers and the net, remember? No, I didn't think so, lol.

ben