alienation & guns

There I go again, alienating (ha - punny - read on) relatives & their friends...petty? Perhaps...but
this little gem was in my inbox. It's followed by the resulting emails. Note the important study on children & guns at the bottom:

Shooting in Butte!

These two deserved what they got...you go girl!!!!

Two illegal aliens, Ralphel Resindez, 23, and Enrico Garza, 26, probably
believed they would easily overpower home-alone 11 year old Patricia
Harrington after her father had left their two-story home.

It seems the two crooks never learned two things: they were in Montana and
Patricia had been a clay shooting champion since she was nine.

Patricia was in her upstairs room when the two men broke through the front
door of the house. She quickly ran to her father's room and grabbed his 12
gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun.

Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor only to be the first
to catch a near point blank blast of buckshot from the 11-year-old's crouch
aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals.

When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left
shoulder and staggered out into the street where he bled to death before
medical help could arrive.

It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen 45 caliber
handgun he took from another home invasion robbery. The victim during that
robbery, 50-year-old David Burien, was not so lucky. He died from stab
wounds to the chest.

Ever wonder why good stuff never makes NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, or ABC
news........an 11 year old girl, properly trained, defended her home, and
herself......against two murderous, illegal immigrants......and she wins,
she is still alive.

*Now that is Gun Control !*

*Thought for the day:*.........**Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented
immigrant' is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist'.***

I replied:

Glad the little girl is OK, but please take me off the list for screeds against undocumented aliens/pro-firearms...I believe that having a loaded/unsecured shotgun that can be grabbed by a child is dangerous & most likely illegal and is certainly foolish 99.99% of the time (and the statistics on who usually ends up harmed by guns in the home agree with me)

someone from the distribution list replied only to me:

You know there is a little delete button on my computer that I push to get rid of unwanted emails...It is also people like you who get people killed because you don't think we have the right to educate OUR kids in the proper use and handling of fire arms! I was raised in a home where all my Dad's guns (rifles and pistols) were loaded, and if you handled a gun, you opened the bolt and it was only after you checked to see if there was a round in the chamber. All three of us kids knew from an early age that You don't play with guns. They are for protection and hunting...NOT TOYS! You don't point a gun at anything you aren't going to shoot, and shoot to kill! There were never any incidents at our home and in the homes of our friends and neighbors. If people turned their kids loose on the streets without proper driving instruction there would be alot more deaths on the already deadly hiways and streets. The answer is education not illeaglization and more laws to restrict our rights as American Citizens! Next time, doulamomma, don't stick your foot in your mouth,,,just push the delete button and spare us all from your ignorant blatherings and research would be a benifit to you also. The incident in Question DID indeed happen and My cousin was living in Butte at the time. Get a life!

Here's my reply to her:

First off, you could have used that "little delete button" yourself instead of spewing your hatred toward me. My email was intended to contribute to the dialog, as it were, started by the original sender.

I, too, was raised in a home with guns, though they were locked & unloaded - and I am a good shot and respect guns. But I do not live in wilderness or hunt, so I feel guns have no place in my home - a home frequented by many children and visitors who would not have the benefit of training, even if my family was trained. Were there ever an accident involving minors at a home with unsecured guns, the owners of that home would be held legally (and morally) responsible. I applaud proper training with firearms and may have my dad train my sons at some point in spite of the fact that we do not own guns. But I also know that many people do not follow through with training even when they own them. A recent study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children will indeed pick up, aim and otherwise do exactly what they were instructed not to do when they find a gun.

In spite of asking to be left off the distribution list for emails of this sort, it was there for me in my inbox. Usually I delete - this time I did not, as is my right.

You wrote, "The incident in Question DID indeed happen and My cousin was living in Butte at the time." I never questioned the authenticity of the event - a closer reading of what I wrote would tell you this. Just because you disagree with something does not mean the ideas are "ignorant blatherings". So to you I say in return, use spellcheck, read up on gun statistics put out by unbiased organizations & get your own life. And now I will use my delete button & get rid your your ridiculous email.