Knock on Any Door

In 1959. Alfred C. Fuller, founder of the Fuller Brush Co., published his autobiography, A Foot in the Door.

The title described the salesman’s technique for prolonging a conversation with a potential customer in hopes of turning the encounter into a sale.

In today’s America, however, a foot in the door is liable to result in a bullet to the head.

The Great American Shootout continued last week with a young woman being shot to death after she and three others accidentally turned into the wrong driveway while looking for a friend’s house in rural upstate New York.

Then there was the teenager who was shot after ringing the wrong doorbell in Missouri; the two Texas cheerleaders who were shot after approaching the wrong parked car; and the six-year-old girl who was shot—along with her parents—by a neighbor after a basketball rolled into his yard.

Today Fuller’s book would probably be called Death of a Salesman—and Anybody Else Who Knocked on the Wrong Door.

I think of all the times I’ve approached the wrong house while living in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, or when I walked up to the wrong car because the white Toyota I used to drive back then seemed to disappear in any decent sized parking lot.

No one ever pulled a gun on me, but that was in a different country, far removed from the bullet-riddled madhouse in which I currently reside.

People are firing guns without the slightest though of the consequences, as if the problem is solved the second they pull the trigger.

They're fearful and that makes them angry and the anger makes them reach for their guns.

They feel insignificant, overwhelmed, and ignored. And they’re being told by a gang of irresponsible media con artists that owning a gun will solve all their problems.

Who Goes There?

Where are the responsible gun owners that the right wing TV pundits keep bloviating about?

I keep hearing all these rhetoric about “wokeism”, which, in reality, is a distraction from the plague of gun violence roiling through this country.

As long as people are being shot for ringing the wrong doorbell, as long as children are being gunned down in their schools, you can take all your complaints about wokeism, drag queens and pronouns and shove them straight up your ass.

I write about guns and shootings a lot and I know that this upsets some of my friends who’d rather not get caught up in controversial subjects. And I understand that.

Even as I write this, I’m asking myself what the hell is the point? There are plenty of other topics I’d rather discuss. But to avoid this issue feels dishonest.

People who probably never thought about owning a gun are changing their minds as the morgues and ERs fill up and the news coverage increases.

One in five US households bought a gun from March 2020 to March 2022, according to NORC at the University of Chicago, a nonpartisan research institution.

One in 20 Americans purchased a gun for the first time during that period. And I have to be honest, the thought of packing some heat has crossed my mind as well.

Thirty-eight states have some version of the “Stand Your Ground” law, where individuals are permitted to use lethal force in self-defense when there is reasonable belief of a threat, without having any duty to retreat first.

I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that a study last year found that these laws were associated with an 8% to 11% national increase in monthly rates of homicide and firearm homicide.

Twenty-four states have so-called “constitutional carry” laws, which allows people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

The debates will continue, as will the shootings. Angry, isolated people with a list of grievances real or imagined will continue to have easy access to guns and innocent people will continue to die.

Be very careful about the next house you approach and don’t ever put your foot in the door.