GETTING SHOT AT AGE NINE: A WORLD VIEW

(Basin Note: I don't think about this much anymore but, for reasons I don't understand, it's on my mind today.)

Morton Grove, Illinois--Many years ago and far away. It was a cool and windy Spring Day. I remember it being a very happy one, until I got shot. I can tell you two things about the experience: First, I don't recommend it; and, Second, as it turned out, it wasn't the last time.

I was already a shooter and it didn't make me afraid of guns. I was shooting again before I was completely healed. But it made me afraid and distrustful of grownups with guns. The guy who did it was using terrible safety practices. I was just a little guy but I was surely not impressed with the way my Dad handled it (they continued to shoot together for years--I passed whenever that guy was going to be around).

One good thing came of it. Way before it was required by State Law, I went to every gun safety course in a 30 mile radius of my house for years. I went to gun safety camp one year (amazing how may pretty girls went to gun safety camp--a fringe benefit!). As I went through the active hunting years and then into the military, I like to think those who went into the field with me were safer for my unpleasant experience.

To paraphrase the old saw "Guns don't shoot kids, adult morons do!"