Sunday, March 13, 2011

Big crime news in Nebraska

I'm not kidding. Here's the headline of a story in the Lincoln Journal Star - the local crime section - this morning: Opossum kills chickens, bites farmer in Malcolm.

Malcolm is about 11 miles from Lincoln, our capital city. And yeah, this opossum got into a chicken coop and killed two chickens. When the farmer grabbed the opossum, it bit her on the hand:
The woman's skin was not broken, but she had a small red bump.

Quite a crime, huh?

I wish I could say all of our crime is this minor. Still, if you don't grab opossums with your bare hand, you can probably avoid anything too serious.

I've lived in Nebraska all my life, and the only time I've been a victim of any crime was when some drunk (presumably) drove over my mailbox.

And yet, oddly enough, many Nebraskans seem to be just terrified of crime, insisting that everyone needs to start carrying guns - even in our schools - to ward off the criminal element (i.e. anyone who isn't white).

Well, we watch a lot of television.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I am the husband of the woman that was bit in the hand and if I hadn't had a firearm I would of lost more then just a few chickens- I do carry a gun and at that time I was able to shoot the criminal (opossum) in the head.

Bill Garthright said...

Hey, Hobby, I have absolutely no problem with gun ownership,... within reason. And shooting an opossum that's killing your chickens (not to mention one that's bitten your wife)? Who could object to that?

I thought the whole thing was funny, just because it was in the local crime section of the Journal Star. I'm sure it wasn't funny to your wife. But as crimes go, it could have been worse.

And if those are the kinds of crimes we have to fear here in Nebraska, well, we can be pretty proud of our state, I'd think. (Yes, there are worse crimes in the state, unfortunately.)

Re. the gun stuff, I got my first (a BB gun) when I was four. I got a shotgun not too many years after that, and I hunted for many years. Responsible gun ownership is hardly anything I'd protest (nor the vast majority of other people, either).

It's only the complete loons, who think they need an assault rifle with a large magazine and "cop-killer" bullets to defend themselves (from opossums?), or to fill the whole country - including our schools - with pistol-carrying idiots scared to death of everyone else, who bother me.

And I object to groups like the NRA, who try to convince gullible people that the guvmint is going to take away their precious guns. Rational gun laws aren't on the slippery slope to forced vegetarianism and the end of the American way!

I guess I just want some rational thinking when it comes to guns. Actually, I'd like more rational thinking when it comes to everything. :)