I have a neighbor who has a permit to carry. Now this of course is no big deal, I know a few people who have permits to carry. They do not however, walk around with the loaded guns on their hips and patrol their neighborhoods while terrorizing the neighbors. My neighbor, does just this.
He wanders around the apartment complex, from sundown to sunup, at varying times, with a faux military jacket, a big bright flashlight, a ball cap and yes, his loaded gun. He looks over his big beer belly at his neighbors, tells them to return to their homes, to go back inside, and he argues with police officers about his Second Amendment right.
Now, my pistol packing neighbor also sets off fireworks on apartment grounds, writes the second amendment all over walls, the parking lot and anywhere that he can find a spot on which to write his favorite amendment. He scares off dumpster divers, the homeless folks living in the woods behind the apartments, and tries very hard to scare off those of us who are of a darker skinned persuasion.
I actually feel sorry for my neighbor. I feel bad that his brain is so caught up in this one specific purpose in life, that he doesn’t realize how idiotic he seems, how simply ridiculous he appears.
He could get a community action group together, or a neighborhood watch group, he could get a group together to clean up the cigarette butts, dog poop, and garbage from the grounds, he could join together with his neighbors and his apartment manager and pass out flyers to each door, talking about issues that affect us, such as noise complaints or unattended little ones. My neighbor could make a real difference instead of just tilting at windmills, threatening folks who are no danger to his home community.
Instead, my neighbor simply seems like that crazy old man, we all know him, the one who yells at the kids, moans about how life was so much simpler when Blacks and Whites couldn’t use the same bathrooms, who brandishes his rifle just because he legally has the right to, and swears that he’s going to shoot you if you don’t stop smiling at him. My neighbor just makes me sad, that his life…his purpose in life as he sees it, is to turn his apartment complex, a piece of property which he does not own, into some type of police state, with him as the policing entity.
I feel sorry for his fear, his extreme fear of change, of growth, of modernization and of these times a’changing. I feel sorry for him, that he is stuck in some sort of time continuum, where he believes that he can burn witches at stakes, drown the disabled, and make sure that the pure White race is the leader of the pack.
I really do. I feel sorry for him.
However, this does not stop me from being angry. I am super angry. I am angry that he is not sued by the police to have his carry permit revoked because he is fucking insane. I am angry that the entire neighborhood has not stood up to him and made him move. If he wants to have a loaded gun in his home and protect his own home, more power to him…but if I need protecting, I will choose my protector. I am angry that he has taken it upon himself to police our neighborhood, when some of us could care less about dumpster divers and the homeless looking for tossed out loaves of bread and mismatched socks. I am angry that he has taken it upon himself to tell his neighbors to go back into their homes, making it impossible to stand outside on a warm summer night and have a cigarette or just look at the stars.
He may be developmentally disabled. I’m not sure, I’ve never actually had a conversation with him. His interactions with me have been limited to glaring at me, the tattooed Mexican who has Santisima Muerte candles in her bedroom window. I keep waiting for him to ask me if he can see my papers. I’m going to answer him in the only Spanish I know, which will pretty much translate to “I need to use the bathroom and go to the hospital because you are a mother fucking cuckold.” However, he strikes me as being developmentally disabled. He reminds me of the folks who have lived in group homes and institutions for their entire lives and have very specific things that they like and are pretty disturbed with any change.
Don’t get me wrong…I get the passion for the Second Amendment. I too believe that sane, psychologically healthy folks absolutely should have the right to bear arms and so forth. I get it. What I don’t get is why it seems that the idiots of the country are the only ones taking advantage of that right. I mean, if it isn’t some kid shooting his sister because his idiot parents didn’t unload and lock their gun up, or even teach their kids about firearm safety, it’s some nut case heading off and shooting folks because he needed a hug and a cup of hot cocoa.
See, this is why I don’t take advantage of that right. I know that I would just go over to his apartment, knock on his door, slap him in the face with a leather glove and toss it down onto the ground and challenge him to a duel.
Of course…he’d probably just decline because I’m a woman.
Hellish Behavior 