One day last week my sister, Janie, called to tell me that our cousin Bob and his sister Lynn were stopping by to take Janie to lunch. Bob lives in the eastern part of the Commonwealth and Lynn lives in Pittsburgh. Janie and I had discussed the passing on of part of our Dad's legacy to Bob, namely his guns. Dad was a city policeman in Uniontown for many years before his retirement, and left three revolvers. These have been locked away and well hidden for many years. In fact, I last saw them when Dad retired which had to be about thirty years ago. Bob, you see, is a collector, and we figured that he would appreciate these firearms and give them a good home. He was thrilled. After handing them over to Bob, he and Janie transferred the registrations and thus they found a new home. We were relieved to get them out of our care and to close this chapter of Dad's history. He has been gone now for almost fourteen years.
There is much discussion and controversy over gun control and gun legislation. I personally think that a responsible and common sense approach is the best, but this comes from someone who has never owned or fired a gun except for the cap pistol of my cowboy set when I was a kid and the Red Ryder BB gun that my Assistant, Mike Ripple, bought me for Christmas back in the early '90's. I did use that for target practice in the back yard of the rectory. Guns are not a part of my experience nor of my future. Yet, despite this fact, I shed a tear or two when told that Dad's guns had been handed on. They served him well in his role as a public servant on the police force of Uniontown. May they give Bob some joy and satisfaction in the years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment