Deeper Levels of Fear

Once I was a young redneck. The biggest fear I held was someone pulling a gun on me. I came to understand the same gun in the hands of an idiot was more fearful.

Put the same gun in the hands of a woman and the fear deepens. As men have never figured out what a woman is thinking, one can never be sure what one might do with a loaded firearm. No offense intended, but just look at all the trouble one caused with an apple. The most dangerous situation involving a gun is if the person holding it is more scared than you are. Fear is a terrible thing in the hands of the untrained.

As I became a middle-aged redneck, I found that a gun was not the worst thing you could encounter. I went to complain to a man about his son bullying mine. It turned out the father was the inspiration for his son’s behavior. When words won’t do, knuckles might — I cracked the father on the nose. He opened the door and sicked his pit bull on me. I’m not proud of it, but the poor dog, who was merely a reflection of his idiot master and son, did not win.

As life has passed, I have seen many reports where idiots have sicked vicious animals on people. For things like complaining about the noise or smell of 15 dogs in the apartment next door. Usually those with such animals are simply scared and use them similarly to a gun or knife. Many people die or are maimed because an idiot isn’t as smart as the gun or animal he owns.

It is hard to handle when a dog escapes and kills your foo foo dog in your yard. The police arrive to inform you they can do nothing as you have no proof. For some reason, witnesses hold no weight in such situations. This happened in a neighborhood I lived in many years ago. It had happened three times before, and the police had done nothing. Everyone in the neighborhood knew a child would eventually be mauled.

I came home one morning, having forgotten something, to see the dog in a friend’s fenced-in yard killing his dog. As soon as I drove in his direction, the dog headed home and jumped his fence. When its owner came home, it was his turn to figure out what happened to his dog in its yard. Sorry, problem solved.

Then I watched a movie last week about exotic pets and my fears took on a whole new level of intensity. There are more large cats in captivity in Texas alone than in India where they belong. Why would you own something that sees the equivalent of steak when it looks at you?

The worst part of this is that many who own them are no more responsible than those who own mean dogs. Do you want a 500 pound lion living next door with the idiot who lives there already? Too late, they already do. They live next door in cages. Your safety and the safety of your children depends on the ingenuity of someone who repairs his car with duct tape and bailing wire.

Worse than that, it may be someone who doesn’t have the sense to own a gun or knife, much less a mean dog or large cat. People wonder why the government wants gun control. I don’t believe in it. Still, I must wonder about those who are scary without one owning one. I might dodge a bullet and believe I have a chance against a gun. I have proved I am smarter than a dog on several occasions but must not kid myself and believe I can fight something that thinks I’m a Jimmy Dean sausage and weighs more than 500 pounds. Just what I want, a dumb neighbor to turn his panther lose on me simply because I insulted his wife by being polite to her at the mailbox.

After all, it’s cheaper to turn a dog or cat loose on someone than to use a shotgun shell you may need to kill a deer. Imagine showing up at the dentist and not having a shell to kill him with if he causes you pain while pulling one of your three teeth.

As this is written, the entire population of small animals in the Everglades has been wiped from the earth by pet Burmese Pythons that have been released. They estimate there are more than 300,000 already living there. They are already attacking and killing humans to include children and once all food is gone it will get worse. The alligators don’t have a chance.

You can outsmart the smart, but the ignorant will defeat you. Those who advocate owning such animals say fear is the only reason people want them banned. Duh, naw, you think?