Without Hesitation

Bob loved his guns. He uses a few of them for hunting. Whenever he has the chance, he would always tell people the importance of guns, how they protect people. He’s a sharp contrast to his wife, Marta, who abhors guns and the hunting of animals.

“You just don’t know how dangerous life is, honey,” said Bob in a serious tone, “criminals can go after us if we don’t have a gun.” “We don’t need guns. All we need is the police,” frowned Marta, “you’re just inventing excuses for your guns.”

“I’m not making excuses for my guns,” sighed Bob, “do you know that a week ago, thieves burgled a house two blocks from us? If the owners of the house had guns, they wouldn’t have gotten robbed.”

“All we need is to properly lock our doors and turn on our alarms,” protested Marta, “we don’t need guns to protect our house. All we need is to call the police if ever our security cameras pick up thieves.”

“There’s no use talking sense to you, Marta. You don’t know anything about the real world. You think that there’s no bad people in the real world and criminals only exist in the movies. Let’s just go to sleep.”

Bob and Marta were sleeping in their bedroom when their security alarm flashed red colors. “Someone’s trespassing!”, quickly said Bob as he reached for his favorite gun and put bullets in it.

“Let’s call the police!” Said Marta in a panicked voice. Quickly, Bob called the police who promised to be in their house as soon as possible. The couple waited silently inside their bedroom and tried to guess what the intruder was doing at their house.

Then they heard the barking of their puppy. It was clear that the intruder and their puppy were within distance from each other. Marta panicked, “We can’t let the criminal hurt our puppy, Bob. Do something.”

Without any other options, Bob was forced to open the door of their bedroom to confront the intruder in their house. He and Marta carefully walked towards to where they were hearing the noises in the midst of the darkness in their house.

Suddenly they saw a man hungrily eating at their kitchen table, it was clear to the couple that the intruder was a homeless person based from the ragged clothes he was wearing and his dirty, unshaven face.

Their puppy was beside the homeless man and it was barking furiously. The homeless man grabbed a kitchen knife and threw it at the puppy. A patch of blood covered the white fur of the puppy.

Marta became ballistic, “Shoot the man, Bob. He killed our puppy.” But Bob was hesitant, he took pity at the homeless man and knew that the homeless man was just not thinking straight when he threw a kitchen knife at the puppy.

Marta tried to grab the gun of Bob to shoot the homeless man. In their tussle for the gun, Bob accidentally pulled the trigger. The bullet nearly hit the homeless man in the head that he scarily ran out of the house of the couple.

Bob was frozen solid where he stood. Cold sweat poured all over his body. He knew that he was useless with a gun. “I can never shoot another human being. I just can’t,” he repeatedly muttered.

Meanwhile, Marta checked their puppy and found out it was only slightly injured. It just had a minor wound. But she was nevertheless furious. She now was able to get the gun from Bob and tried to chase after the homeless man.

Barely a week passed and there was already a big change in the attitude of the couple. Bob tried to get rid of his guns, but Marta protested. She became very interested in guns and even attended target shooting school.

“You’re all talk, Bob,” she said, “when it’s really time to pull the trigger, you can’t do it. All you can kill are poor and defenseless animals.” “And I never knew I married a violent person in you, Marta,” sighed Bob, “you won’t hesitate to kill a man for the slightest provocation.”

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