Something Different

This isn't about sports. I'll warn you about that right away.

But this series of events is happening even as I type this. I have a close friend who shared this with me last week. This friend has a brother. The story involves this brother's daughter, my friend's niece and her family.

Imagine you are a law-abiding citizen with a spotless arrest record.  You've never been in trouble with the law in any way. Your reputation has never been questioned by friends or neighbors, but something awful happens. Your house is broken into, not once but TWICE is one week.

In the course of the investigation, the police find a gun in your house. It's registered, all the paperwork is up-to-date, the bullets are stored somewhere else. In other words, everything is fine. At least you think it's fine.

But what would YOU do if the police contact social services and THEY start proceedings against you to take your children away solely on the basis of finding a LEGALLY-OWNED GUN, STORED PROPERLY in your house.

And remember this house WAS broken into by real crooks twice in one week. They had bought the gun sometime back for the same reason most families have a gun. Protection. Just in case something unthinkable happens.

That's the situation the niece's family is facing right now. I really don't care where anyone reading this stands on gun control, but you have to admit that our society has went more than a little overboard on the issue. There is now an obsession by law enforcement, based on Washington sentiment, to make owning guns a crime in itself. The state where this particular series of events is taking place is one of the most restrictive in the nation when it comes to owning guns.

They are currently sending a message to legal gun owners hoping to make them re-think their need to own guns, by applying this type of legal pressure. This isn't a hypothetical situation. This is really happening. Right now.

No matter what happens in this case, the family will now have a police and social services record. That's how these things work. That way, if something like this "happens" again, they'll be able to produce a record of questionable/illegal activity with the family.

And there is no guarantee the current situation will go their way. They're still living  the current nightmare.