Converting Anti Gunners

I was up on the Internet until three last night, and considered canceling the gym date with my sister the next morning but fell asleep before I finished the thought. 6 hours later the phone rang as it always did on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
"Hey. I'm leaving now."
"mmmmm... *sigh* I was up late working..."
"And you'll wake up when you start sweating! C'mon!"
"... mmm... Alright. I'll see you there."
It took me a little longer to get ready than usual, because I had to wake up first. When I got there I saw she was on the stationary bicycle, and was glad because whenever I used it, I lost inches. However, I was discovering that I really needed to stay on the full 60 minutes to see a difference. I was late, and decided I'd stay past when my sister leaves to make sure I get the full benefit of my gym visit.

We talked about her work like we usually do, and 30 minutes later she had to leave, and left me to myself. I thought I should have brought my book or my ipod, but I realized I could probably better use the time just thinking to myself.

Shortly after ten, a regular walked in and took her usual spot on a bike. This time she was one row ahead of mine, and one to the left. I usually only talk to my sister when at the gym, but I knew that she was friends with another regular working out in the area.
"Hey girl" The second regular said to the first working out near me.
"Hey, how ya been?"
"I've been better; the world's been better." She said gesturing to the three TVs covering the Virginia Tech murders.
"Yeah, it's scary stuff. See you later!"
"Bye."

I looked at the woman and remembered that comments I had overheard from her before seemed to indicate she was a liberal. Her whole persona screamed public school teacher, and that meant no guns no how.

A bit ago I kind of had my eyes opened to the state of gun ownership in California, and resolved to make a difference. This was my chance to see if I could change the thinking of a liberal, or at least challenge them to think or research.

She stopped reading the book she brought and watched the TVs for a while. I leaned forward a little and said loudly enough to not be talking to myself; "Don't watch too much of it." She paused a bit and turned her head around, "Yeah. It's just really unsettling." Perfect, feeling uneasy about your vulnerability is the first step! :] She continued;

"It's really sad that someone could do something like this. I mean, how screwed up do you have to be to get a gun, and go killing perfectly innocent people. These kids were just trying to get an education."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. What really got me was that the teachers with permits were allowed to carry guns on campus until, I think, two years ago when they voted it down."

"Well I don't think that the German teacher was going to be able to do anything when he just got shot in the face. And teachers shouldn't be able to have guns around kids, what if a woman teacher is overpowered and someone takes her gun?" Ok, she acknowledges that most women are physically weaker than men and somewhat vulnerable, that's one thing I won't have to cover.

"Well, I'm just saying it could have been different."

"I don't think what we need is more guns. I mean, guns just made it easier for him to kill so many people." Excellent, I know how to counter this.

"Well, it did make it easier for this idiot to kill so many people, but it would also make it easier for a female student to defend herself and others from someone like this. Just like a gun would let a woman teacher even the playing field with someone stronger than her. Did you hear the latest news this morning?" She didn't, and I told her what I'd heard this morning about the letter the murderer left.

"It's just scary to me that some could just walk into anywhere and just start killing people."

"Well, majority of these kinds of attacks take place in 'Gun free zones' where people aren't allowed to have guns even if they have permits. That guy who shot up that Amish school supposedly did it because he knew it would be a soft target."

"Some people can have guns, I guess, but there are people out there who are just crazy. Who really needs an assault rifle? To protect your house?! C'mon!"

"Actually the assault rifle ban only outlawed certain cosmetic features not functionality."

She gave me a confused look.

"I mean to say that it didn't take any more firepower away from anyone, just guns that look mean."

Her confused look turned into something else. "Are you a member of the NRA?" She asked the question with the smirk you give a kid with cookie crumbs on his face when you ask if he was in the cookie jar.

"Heh, no. I just grew up shooting with my dad. It was a lot of fun. Actually, back in the day, a lot of kids used to bring their guns to school with them."

Surprise hit her face quickly. "What? No they didn't."

"Yep. Kids used to go shooting after school or have marksmanship training, or boy scouts, and they'd carry their .22 rifle with them to school and just keep it in their locker until school was out and they'd go shooting. No one gave it a second thought."

"... Well maybe in middle America or something." Gee, why not just say "flyover states"

"No, I'm pretty sure it happened all over. Back then, this kind of thing never happened. If there were guns on campus, I'm sure anyone would think twice about shooting up the place." Hasami

She answered quickly. "But he's not going to think twice because he killed himself. He's a coward. At least face the police and get shot, he's a coward for killing himself."

"Since he's not facing the police and he's not afraid of getting dying, there's no deterrent. All the police in the world could only hope to get to him soon enough. He knew he was going to die, I'm just saying that if someone in the class was armed, teacher or student, it might not have been 32."

She looked forward and nodded thoughtfully.

"Then we can talk about the campus police's response time. I mean, the police are too far away to help you in most cases, and anyways, they have no legal requirement to help you."

"What do you mean?" Oh man, this is playing out perfectly.

"The supreme court has found, more than once, that the police are not legally required to protect you."

"What!?"

"If you call the police and they don't come, you can't sue them. They're not legally liable."

"But they're the police!"

"In most cases they're a separate agency from the government."

"No, our tax dollars pay for them."

"Our tax dollars go to the city or the state pay for them, and the city or the state pays for the agency to patrol your neighborhood. Well, could you imagine people suing the police for taking too much time to get to their call? They'd be bankrupt. They don't have enough people to do everything."

"You're right, but we can't protect them from everything, I mean if they're beating up someone like that boy a little bit ago they should be sued."

*nodding* biting tongue

"Gee, well that's really comforting!" She said sarcastically.

Empathy time. "Yeah, it's not really a good feeling to know that you're vulnerable. I just found out about it a few years ago, my dad brought me shooting a lot, but when I was old enough to understand this stuff, he told me that I need a gun because when it comes down to it; I'm the only one responsible for my safety, for the safety of my girlfriend, and for the safety of my loved ones."

She nodded thoughtfully, and waited for me to continue.

"I mean, look at the LA riots; the police literally stepped back and let LA burn for days."

"That sounds like what the Russians did to the (something, I forgot, I was too busy thinking of what to say next, but I got the feeling she was parallelling government assisted genocide)"

"Well," I joked, "you should be careful about drawing those kinds of parallels!" Trying to give her more of a us vs them mentality.

"No, that's exactly what its like." Not sure she understood me; but she got the point.

"Then you think about us, I mean, we're not LA, but we live along a fault line. As soon as there's an earthquake there will be no police to help you. If there's an earthquake or other emergency, and you dial 911 and say some one's trying to get into your house, they won't come. They're too busy taking care of the dead and injured, and getting the city stabilized.

"So, no police."

"None. All that would stand between you and a looter (Katrina's still fresh), rapist (Sorry, kinda playing on fears), or gang, would be your gun.

She looked forward again, but this time, with a more troubled look on her face.

"Well, I stayed 10 minutes over my time." Actually I was 2 minutes early, but I wanted to leave her to her thoughts.

"Thanks for making 20 minutes fly by!"

"My pleasure. Hey, have you ever been shooting before?" She shook her head no. "I come in twice a week, but a little earlier. There's a range not too far from here, and first time shooters are always free."

"Really? Well; I don't have a gun."

"No problem, they have guns you can rent there, or you can borrow mine."

"I could probably just borrow one from my brother!" Hmm, source of hostility? I'm guessing he's in the NRA :) "Well, that's really nice of you."

I didn't want to force a decision or a date now, i wanted to let her process what we'd talked about. "Well, see you around."

"Yeah, nice talking to you!"

FIN

I walked down stairs, got a quick drink, walked out to the parking lot, and proceeded to do the happy dance. I was quite pleased with myself! I turned off the radio so I could focus on remembering the conversation, and hurried home to type it out while it was still fresh.

I'm going to let her sit on it for a week, and then see if I can catch her again and see if she has made up her mind.

This is awesome? Y/N