Gun Store

Yesterday, among my errands, I stopped at Mills Fleet Farm for more chicken feed. I love Mills Fleet Farm and I’m there pretty regularly. It’s close to my house, on the rural edge of Waite Park/St. Cloud. It is my source for chicken treats (I paused by the bags of meal worms, but decided to just get feed this time).

It’s also my source for canning jars, garden supplies, hoses, and many other things. Going there makes me feel like a farmer. Sometimes I just wander the aisles and think about making fences and feeding sheep. One day last spring I passed my friend Scott as he was buying a new waterer for his goats and I was getting a little trough for my chickens.

But I don’t think I’m going to shop there anymore. Yesterday, I felt very uneasy. I felt like a hypocrite. Why do I shop at a store that sells automatic weapons?

I have nothing against hunting rifles or hunting or fishing. We actually own two hunting rifles and a .22 handgun Steve uses to kill rabbits and gophers that threaten the tree nursery.

But I believe there should be a ban on automatic weapons and assault rifles and any other weapons whose sole purpose is to kill humans– or pursue recreation opportunities that simulate killing humans.

I’m going to go to the gun counter next trip and see what they actually stock and talk to the “sporting goods” manager. I don’t want to falsely accuse my local store. However, on the company website I see they support open carry and concealed carry and actually lead workshops in their stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas on concealed carry, including a recent half-day workshop in St. Cloud.

This is one of the semi-automatic “tactical” rifles you can buy through their online site. (A Huldra Mark IV 5.56×45 tactical elite rifle said to “run cooler, cleaner and longer than any other AR”)

I don’t know quite how to take action to express my opposition to the sales of weapons like those used in mass killings in the United States. I’ve signed petitions, and I vote my conscience in this area (not difficult since all the Democratic candidates I support also approve of this position). But it doesn’t feel like enough.

I pray, for the victims and for the country– but I believe prayer is the beginning of action. I pray for the courage and wisdom to do something.

This past summer I pulled into the parking lot of my local grocery store and there in front of me was a young white man with the butt of a large handgun sticking out of the back of his pants. I was shocked. I was scared. He gave me a leering smile. Cocky. Unstable? I’m not sure I would have gotten out of my car if he was going inside the store instead of away from it.

I am like most others in that I have so far avoided thinking about this issue too much. It has not affected me directly– no one I know has been a victim of a mass shooting. But I am in fact terrorized. I want to make choices that reflect the world I want to live in. That might start with driving in a different direction or a little farther to buy my chicken feed.