General Discussion

My ex husband and I were dumb enough to hitchhike in the very late 70s. We were picked up by a trucker who we thought would get us from LA all the way across the Southwest. We were also dumb enough to fall asleep in the sleeper and woke way out in the desert to a tweaked-out guy with a BIG gun pointed at us. He demanded we have sex while he watched. Crazy, but we refused. I had the presence of mind somehow to say that if he shot us at close range he’d blow us all over the inside of his truck and never get it clean. Then refused to get out till he took us to a very public place. It was awful but the worst? We went to the State Patrol in AZ, which was where we were, and they smirked at us and did nothing. We knew who he was. We had listened to him on his CB radio and knew his handle (Big Daddy and the White Lightning Express). They refused to help. So yes, my life was impacted by guns and cops. Someday I’ll talk about my Alabama State Patrol grandfather who talked about cuffing and pistol whipping black folks and my mother once afraid was going to kill us when they got into a massive fight. She was disabled and couldn’t walk. There are people who should never, ever be near a gun. Many of them are. Way too many.