Especially if they’re in the hands of someone a serious gun collector misguidedly trusts:
So much for the notion that owning guns, lotsa guns, will protect you against robbery and murder. In the case of poor old Mr. Kuhn, guns were the motive for the murder. Since he knew and trusted his own killer, he never thought to use one against him. And now, that pricey gun collection is out there on the streets, wreaking God only knows how much havoc.Somehow, though, I just can’t see the NRA putting that on a bumper sticker.Retired attorney Carl Kuhn was 82 when he died at home, so no one doubted his sons when they said for public consumption that he had died of natural causes.But all the while, they knew that DuPage County detectives thought something was suspicious and had opened a homicide investigation. The house, near Bartlett in unincorporated DuPage County, appeared to have been ransacked, Assistant State’s Atty. Robert Berlin said.Sheriff’s investigators were interested in a phone call that Kuhn received earlier that day from Terry Bratcher, 43, an ex-con who had become close friends with his former attorney, often visiting the much older man’s house, working on his cars and taking him out to movies.Kuhn had become so close with his former client that Bratcher was welcome to enter Kuhn’s home without knocking, said Kuhn’s son Eric.On Tuesday, Bratcher and Keith Allen, 21, were facing murder charges, accused of smothering Kuhn with a pillow. The victim was an avid gun collector, and Allen and Bratcher took 43 guns during the home invasion Friday, officials said. The weapons were later found in Bratcher’s garage in West Chicago, authorities said.“My dad trusted him,” said Eric Kuhn, 47, the oldest of three sons. “The hardest part of this whole thing is this wasn’t someone who just wanted to steal my father’s guns or someone who just wanted money. … They didn’t kick open the door; my father opened it and let them in.”
It’s ironic that Kuhn for years in the Chicago area was an outspoken “Guns control crime” gun rights advocate.
Yep. And now he’s had to eat his words. Too bad they choked him to death.
At least up here, there’s a chance that the stolen guns would be recovered, thanks to the registry. But there? Thanks to the NRA, no chance at all.
First, the guns were recovered. second, how many of your friends or neighbors do you shoot when they come to your house? This is a guy he trusted. Third, the collection was antiques, so, unless gang bangers are now using flintlocks, percussion, and antique firearms, they wernt any real threat on the street. Its a shame you turn someone preying on the elderly into a gun control issue. what if it had been jewelry?
Recovered, yes, but how? Because the dead man was lucky enough to have a son, who reported them stolen, and who himself was lucky enough to know who the thief was. Of course, some of them being antique and expensive (and therefore, harder to pawn or resell) helped. If they’d been new, however, nothing short of a registry would have led to their recovery. If you’re so goddamned smart, why not be pro-registry? Cars have to be registered, so why not guns? Gangbangers can still convert guns, even antique ones, into cash. You’d probably be amazed at how many of them do. Unregistered firearms enable gangbangers, regardless of how old or new they are.
It doesn’t matter how antique they were, though–they were all made for the same original purpose, and it wasn’t strictly ornamental. Jewels don’t kill people, GUNS do.
I didn’t “make this a gun control issue”–it just plain IS one. The shame is on YOU for being too fucking stupid to consider ALL the angles, including the most crucial one: GUNS KILL PEOPLE.
Now consider YOURSELF duly rebuked–MORON.