A torch was passed this week at Wayfarer’s Refuge.
The first grass-cutting of the season happened, and I wasn’t the one on the mower.
Now that Diana has finished her Master’s, we’re readjusting the chore distribution. I’ve handled about 95% of the lawn care ever since we were married. I liked the time outside, listening to music as I tooled around the yard. But mowing took up a lot of time, and I rarely had time or energy to work on the other stuff in the yard, like tree and limb maintenance and trimming. Diana had been doing a lot of the trimming but had traded that off to Middle Son during her classes.
So she’s handling the mowing, Middle Son is still doing a lot of the trimming, and I get to focus on grounds stuff. That frees me up to work on clearing out the “north forty” part of the property, and maybe build the front gardens that I’ve been thinking about almost since we moved here. I’m looking forward to moving ahead on those projects.
But it’s a little odd watching her mow.
More Genealogy Tangents
Francis Mayville III married my third cousin, Jacqueline Nell Fay. But Jackie wasn’t his only wife. He later married Penelope Ann Lett.
But Francis wasn’t Penny’s only husband.
She was married at least three other times that I can find. There’s a 1963 marriage in Indiana followed by a divorce in Texas ten years later. Between 1973 and 1982, there’s a marriage and divorce, because her dad’s obit has a different last name than the 1982 Texas marriage produces. Then she married Francis, and he seems to be her last husband. I haven’t found any other marriage records for her, anyway. And she’s only 81 at this point, so who knows?
She’s probably just going to be a side quest at this point, because my only connection to her is that she married the ex-husband of my third cousin. But in this chunk of the Baldinger line that I’ve been exploring for these last few weeks, I’ve found more divorces and remarriages than in the rest of the family put together, I think.
Gun Safety and Suicide Prevention
I came across an interesting article this week about how the junior senator from Maine, Angus King (I) is seeking to lower the suicide rate for veterans. His plan involves the American Legion and VFW posts across the country storing firearms for at-risk veterans.
American Legion national commander Daniel Seehafer seems to be in favor of the idea. He shared a story about a veteran asking another veteran and Legion member to store his guns as he went through a mental health crisis, and the post stepped up to help.
I have thoughts.
I see too many potential problems with this idea.
Legion and VFW posts were never designed to be arms rooms. They’re not planned or built as secure storage areas. Far too many suffer burglaries on a regular basis. Most have alcohol licenses. Many posts become personal fiefdoms where the commanders and their buddies serve only to gather and wield whatever power they can gain. I can see some post commander deciding that no one who surrenders their guns is going to get them back, ever, no matter what.
Various state laws regarding transfers would make this a nightmare as well, especially with the member turnover as members move on or die.
If the guns are lost or stolen or damaged, who’s responsible? Is it the post? The person who signed for the guns? Post leadership? All of the above?
So, I can find lots of reasons that this is a poor implementation of a good idea.
But what can we do to give veterans a safe place to store their weapons when they’re in crisis? Because I think that part is a great idea.
As it turns out, there are already a couple of options.
The Armory Project
Caleb Morse, owner of the Rustic Renegade gun shop in Lafayette, Louisiana, got a call from an Army buddy one day. The buddy showed up at Morse’s store and started unloading guns from his car, then drove off. Morse was worried about his friend—giving away possessions can be a warning sign of an impending suicide attempt—and wondered what to do about the guns. He decided to store them in his store’s secure storage area in case his friend came back. Six months later, he did, and thanked Morse for storing his guns.
A few months later, another veteran showed up with a similar request. Then another, and another.
Morse started logging the guns into his bound book to create a paper trail.
Then Gala True, a professor at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine reached out to him.
The result was a coalition of gun ranges, shops, and clubs working together to provide safe storage alternatives. They had the Louisiana state legislature create enabling laws that safeguard the groups storing firearms.
There are nine other states besides Louisiana working on similar initiatives, including Colorado, New Jersey, Mississippi, Maryland, and Washington.
There’s also Hold My Guns, a nationwide effort along the same lines. Nine retailers have signed up for the program so far, which takes a holistic approach to suicide prevention. They don’t just store your guns; the group also addresses crisis awareness training and community outreach through their FFL partners.
These both seem like great programs, and it surprised me to learn about them the way I did. The CBS piece seemed pretty favorable to The Armory Project, which was nice to see from the typically anti-gun mainstream media.
So here’s me doing my part to help raise awareness of the programs. I might even contact my state legislators to look into creating a bill similar to Louisiana’s recent effort.
Anything to help save lives.
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