My earliest childhood memory is getting a gun stuck in my face after 3 men kicked our apartment door in on Spring & Itaska. It was a week before Christmas, and my mother was 7 months pregnant with my sister. My father never had a chance; they had obviously been casing us and knew they could overpower him.
They had him go face down on the floor with one guy holding a pistol to the back of his head, and kind of covering my mother; who was backed into a corner of the kitchen. The guy who was the “leader” had me close by with a gun at my head in case either one of them tried anything, while the third man ransacked the house of all valuables; including the presents.
I remember looking up at the gun, and noticing the bullets in the revolvers chamber; but he told me quickly to stare at the ground. And i did. The next thing i knew they were yelling at him that they’d be watching to see if he called the cops, and one guy fired a shot at my mother, which grazed her in the arm. Then they were gone. I was almost 2 years old.
To paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi: “St. Louis City. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be well armed.”
Needless to say, i’m a 2nd amendment fan.
Dear God, I am without words.