I Wanted to Be a Good Mom. So I Got a Gun.
- 6 years ago
I Wanted to Be a Good Mom. So I Got a Gun.
The barrel of her rifle was inches away from his face
and she told him, “Next time you come here, I won’t hesitate.” She had her gun pointed at him through the window on his way down, and as he went down the ladder she grabbed the top and shook it, just to put the fear of God into him one last time before he fled.
Right around when my dad left, when I was 3 years old, our neighborhood on Long Island experienced a crime wave of burglaries,
which led my mother to keep guns in various parts of the house in case she needed one at a moment’s notice.
After years of receiving death threats for my conservative views, months of being attacked by the alt-right
and then having our address published online by the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, I pushed myself to finally go through the process of asking friends for letters attesting to my character, obtaining fingerprints and submitting to background checks.
That night, in that open window, I heard the banging of a ladder,
and by the time my mother made it into the room and began loading her gun, a man was about to climb in.
I would later learn just how much: The Anti-Defamation League named me one of the top
10 Jewish journalists to be attacked by the alt-right during the election season.
While it may seem counterintuitive to those who didn’t grow up around guns, in our house
we saw them as tools of protection and empowerment for two women living alone.
The barrel of her rifle was inches away from his face
and she told him, “Next time you come here, I won’t hesitate.” She had her gun pointed at him through the window on his way down, and as he went down the ladder she grabbed the top and shook it, just to put the fear of God into him one last time before he fled.
Right around when my dad left, when I was 3 years old, our neighborhood on Long Island experienced a crime wave of burglaries,
which led my mother to keep guns in various parts of the house in case she needed one at a moment’s notice.
After years of receiving death threats for my conservative views, months of being attacked by the alt-right
and then having our address published online by the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer, I pushed myself to finally go through the process of asking friends for letters attesting to my character, obtaining fingerprints and submitting to background checks.
That night, in that open window, I heard the banging of a ladder,
and by the time my mother made it into the room and began loading her gun, a man was about to climb in.
I would later learn just how much: The Anti-Defamation League named me one of the top
10 Jewish journalists to be attacked by the alt-right during the election season.
While it may seem counterintuitive to those who didn’t grow up around guns, in our house
we saw them as tools of protection and empowerment for two women living alone.