There was an incident that occurred while I was living in a friend’s mom’s basement that really makes me wonder whether she was absolutely clueless or just recklessly indifferent. There are a couple possibilities, but these are the two that seem most likely. This all relates to the first time I bought a gun.
As it happened, I’d just turned 18. Suddenly, I could buy a gun and I decided that I wanted one. I wanted to buy a shotgun (they were cheap). However, my friend and I didn’t have a car. We had to ask his mom for a ride to Walmart so we could buy the gun. This presented a problem.
You see, we didn’t want her knowing that we were buying a gun. We thought (rightfully so) that she might object to me having a loaded shotgun in her basement. After all, I was pretty freaked out at the time. With staying up for days on end and all sorts of other things, I was not safe to own a gun. She would know this and would likely put a stop to the whole deal. So, we didn’t tell her.
My friend came up with the bullshit story that we were buying blinds for the windows in the basement so I could sleep during the day. I don’t know why she bought that, but she apparently did (note, she never went into my area of the basement and as such would never know if they went up or not). This way, when I came out of the store with a long, thin box, she wouldn’t say anything.
Mind you, the box said ‘New England Firearms’ on the side. Further, Walmart had a policy (back when they sold guns, I don’t think they do anymore). If you bought a gun, the manager had to walk outside with you and hand it to you there (as if you couldn’t just load it and walk right back inside). Thus, she saw this happen. Still, she never said a word. I just put my box in the trunk and we went home.
Now, maybe it just didn’t occur to her that a manager handing me my purchase outside the store was odd. Maybe it just didn’t occur to her to ask any questions. If this is so then she was extremely clueless. On the other hand, maybe she did know exactly what we were doing and we just thought we were being slick. If that’s the case then she was recklessly indifferent to the situation. After all, there’s no way I would have let the me of the time bring a loaded shotgun into the house. She was really taking her life into her hands when she did.
