In the fall of 1985 I felt alive. I felt big. I felt important.
I was a freshman in high school in Norwalk, Ohio.
I had good friends and I was having a great time.
I also had what I have now: a big mouth. I was the unofficial cheerleader for the Truckers and my voice bellowed at every game I could get to, and I got to most. I was a normal teenager and a good kid.
One night after our Truckers got trounced on the gridiron, a friend and I walked a short distance to pick up a pizza.
I was approached by a well-known hoodlum in our city who engaged us in small talk.
I got smart-mouthed because of my 14-year-old cockiness. A couple of seconds later I heard my name, turned around and felt the tip of a pocket knife in my throat.
As a teenager, I was stunned. Yes, my mouth was running, but I did not deserve to have that happen to me.
Later that night I cried. I cried not out of fright but out of the feeling of utter powerlessness.
Later on, I realized how lucky I was. The knife could have been a gun and guns can hurt much easier than knives.
That night stays with me to this day and it has shaped my feeling about guns since.
Every month or so, we have a brand new gun massacre.
Last weekend it was a former Ku Klux Klan leader killing people at a Jewish Community Center.
I could go on and on listing examples, but we all know the names: Columbine, Sandy Hook, Aurora.
Of course, the requisite request for prayers go out and much hand-wringing goes on but nothing substantial gets done to solve the problem.
In the last year, we have seen two massive knife attacks, one outside of Houston and outside of Pittsburgh.
One was at a college, another at a high school.
These were tragedies, although no one was killed. When watching this news coverage though, I did not say any prayers. I did not wring my hands.
I just watched the coverage and said, “Thank God it was just a knife and not a gun.”
It takes will to stab someone or hate to stab someone. Shooting into a crowd is far easier and requires less precision and nerve than stabbing.
Guns kill quickly, efficiently, and with less mess to the one pulling the trigger.
This is why an America with over 250 million guns scares the life out of me.
I look back to that night all those years ago and I’m so very happy I was not harmed. I am even happier that perpetrator did not have a gun.
Guns make cowards brave. Guns have the ability to make reasonable people unreasonable.
The National Rifle Association says “people kill people, guns don’t kill people.” While that is true, guns certainly do make it easier to kill.
I believe a gun-crazy society is not what the writers of the Constitution truly desired.
It is time to re-visit gun control; in fact, it is past time.
If you disagree, ask someone who lost someone in our multiple gun tragedies that are happening ever more frequently.
Respond to Paul at
