Gun or No Gun

The recent shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, reminds me of a gun-related accident that happened to a family friend.

Years ago when my siblings and I were still in grade school, one of our mother’s God brothers liked to spend times chasing wild animals. So during the hunting season, he would take his guns to far away places where wild boars roamed. Since we had never seen any trophies in his home or heard of him telling his big “fish” stories, no one really took him as a serious hunter. Indeed, he was not. And he proved the others right when we heard what had happened to him in his last outing to the high country. Instead of aiming his shotgun at a wild creature, he shot himself in the foot and lost a big toe!

It happened many years ago when we were kids. But I still remember the roaring laughter bursted in the room when we heard the pain this family friend had inflicted upon himself by his own doing. Fortunately, the physical suffering in this case was not fatal. But the pain and suffering from the severed toe had definitely helped cut short of the career of a would-be hunter. - Ayee