Another One Bites The Dust

While running chores on a Saturday afternoon, I listened to the Moth Radio show on NPR.  A British man from Sheffield recounted his encounter with a home intruder.  

It was late in the evening.  It was quite dark outside.  He could not see the intruder, but he could hear that the person already broken down the lock to come through the door.  In the heat of the moment, he pulled out a saber that he still possessed from his younger fencing days.  

He tried to call the police, but the intruder broke in before he could talk to the dispatcher.  To defend himself and his family, he put down the phone to confront the stranger in his house.  With his fancy ancient weapon, he started fighting against the wooden stick in the hands of the burglar.  On one hand, he wanted to fend off the intruder.  On another hand, he was also trying not to hurt the intruder.  His daughter was sleeping upstairs.  He did not want to startle his child so that she comes down stairs to possibly get hurt, or to witness his father injuring another person with his saber inside their house.

At the end, he successfully chased the intruder away.  His sword did cut the burglar, but fortunately, it was not a very serious injury.  The police came to his house because the dispatcher could hear the fight on the phone and they traced the call to his address.  As the man described it, his fancy sword is the type that makes a spectacular swoosh sound.  So, the police could really hear his moves during the fight the entire time.  "You did good!" they praised him.  The police easily arrested the intruder because he was running on foot right towards the direction of the police vehicle.  

The man wrote up his story and shared it online.  Most people praised him on his kindness and how he handled the situation without causing any serious harm to himself or the intruder.  "Most people" -- except one group.  They are from Texas, USA.  According to the recount by the man, these Texans reprimanded him for not having killed the intruder.  

Every day, someone in America gets hurt or killed by gun violence in our country.  Many people think that we have a gun problem.  Pro-gun people disagree.  They say that guns don't hurt people.  Finally, I have to admit that they are right.  What we have is not just a gun problem.  We have a cultural problem.  We have people who harbor extreme attitudes: You either stay away from me, or, if you cross me, you are dead.  

We have a serious people problem.