By Tom Dodge, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – Somebody told me once that he greased the pole that supported his birdhouse to keep the snakes from climbing it and eating the bird eggs. I thought of this story when I read of the homeowner in Far North Dallas who shot and killed those intruders recently.
Intrusion into our nest by marauders is a terror common to us all. I was saddened of course that the homeowner was forced into such a position by these intruders, but elated when I read that he shot them both. If this story holds up, I think Mr. Gomez should be cited as a hero, given the key to the city and the Medal of Freedom.
I know that guns in the home lead to accidental deaths of family members much more often than to deaths of intruders. I'm also aware of the statistics regarding causes of crime:
Crime and unemployment are strongly linked.
Single parent homes and lack of education are factors.
The decline of religious influences and overvalue of the status of material possessions.
The criminalization of some drugs and not others is a cause.
Violent movies and video games are sometimes used by defense attorneys as legal defenses for violent acts.
Guns are glamorized and subliminally associated with sex.
And, personally, I believe that our government's constant war-talk and emphasis on violence to settle all disputes and used, as it is currently, as a means to peace, cannot be discounted as a factor. President Clinton once condemned school violence even as he was blowing Kosovo to smithereens.
I know all this and Mr. Gomez is still my hero.
Ironically, the day that story appeared in the press, another story warmed my heart. A man was beating his dog with his rifle butt; the gun went off and killed the man.
I was having a bad day until I read this. I'm tired of meanness, violence, and cruelty. I'm sick of hearing about honorable people, and animals, being abused and killed by psychopathic marauders.
Which brings us back to guns. I know what Freud said about them and think he was probably right. Yet I do not have to own the biggest one. It's all right with me that Clint Eastwood's is bigger. My snub-nose .38 Magnum is big enough and is always within reach in my house.
I'm not a gun enthusiast, despise shooting, hunting, and otherwise terrorizing living things.
That's why Mr. Gomez is my hero.
He appears to loathe what he had to do. He would no doubt refuse any kind of honor such as I suggested. He appears to be a man stricken, forced to do something that is virtually unthinkable for any decent person - he had to take lives in order to save lives. The intruders' lives were quite reasonably not as important to him as the lives of his family. He did not make this decision after long and thoughtful consideration. The consideration and the decision were simultaneous. He acted on primal instinct.
As much as I admire what he did, I know that it will not stop marauders from breaking into the houses of honorable people. But neither will prison or capital punishment. These methods have been around a long time and still these crimes occur.
So, the question is: how do we grease the pole to keep the snakes out?
Tom Dodge is a writer from Midlothian. If you have opinions about this commentary, call 90.1's Listener Comment Line at (214) 740-9338.