“I may not get them, but with me having a gun — at least I have a chance.” That’s Sherry Sherrow’s philosophy about gun ownership boiled down to its essence. And it jibes well with that of tens of millions of other Americans.
The Kansas City Star’s profile of the Lee’s Summit, Missouri former teacher is an accurate portrait of Americans’ attitudes about firearm freedom and illustrates why the left’s attempts to wring the gun culture out of this country is forever doomed to failure.
She’s a widow and only came to appreciate guns when she inherited her father’s old .38.
She liked that old gun. Liked how it made her feel. So she bought another one. One that fit her hand better — a .380 Sig Sauer semi-automatic pistol. She’s since added a few more — handguns, long guns, assault rifle — making this spry senior citizen, who laughs easily and has 16 grandchildren, pretty much loaded for bear.
Somebody pounding on the front door in the middle of the night spurred this push for security. It scared her. Turned out to be pranksters, but she got to thinking — what if it was something else? What if they’d banged all the way inside?
“It made me wary,” she said.
She’s a regular shooter now and an NRA life member. And she’s not a doctrinaire gun rights advocate.
Like most people, Sherrow knows well the mantras of America’s gun debate and thinks too much of the shouting comes from the edges.
But gun owners like Ms. Sherrow — and their numbers increase every single day — are part of the long-term growth in support for civilian gun ownership. And why no matter how much money they throw at it, gun violence prevention, gun safety, gun reform gun control remains a losing issue.