Back shortly after my wife and I got married, we had no kids to worry about. I carried guns everyday at my job. I carried a saddle carbine or rifle, a saddle holster gun a Ruger Blackhawk in .44 mag, and a .44 short barrelled Ruger Redhawk on my hip. I rode horseback or in a Dune Buggy out into the New Mexico White Sands area, a vast dessert by my self daily. With no kids, guns were always setting out on tables, up on top of cabinets, leaning in corners, or lying on the coffee table in a state of disassemble for cleaning or repair. A few were on display stands on tables or shelves, and many hung on pegs from the wall. We owned a Rotty and a Lab, so I was never concerned about someone coming into the house when we were not there.
My wife wanted to entertain the women she worked with one weekend, so she asked me to cleanup the guns, and put them all away, because there might be kids coming. I did that, I put all the guns in the back bedroom and locked the door. The party was a success and everyone was happy.
The following weekend one of the ladies dropped by unannounced. She had a little boy about three that was totally out of control. During the party the Brat had stayed home with Dad. As she came up to the door she yelled Knock, knock, and walked right in uninvited.
When she entered I told her she needed to keep her kid undercontrol. She was offended, she said, "He's used to being able to run around free and not being restricted". The kid ran over and picked up a Black Powder pistol that I kept on a small stand beside the TV for Display. I had no Black Powder and the nipples had been mushroomed by people picking it up and accidentally dry firing it so it would not shoot anyway, but she did not know that. I pointed out, "That's a real gun your kid just picked up and is aiming at you, what are you going to do when it goes Bang"? She looked at the rifle I was cleaning on the coffee table, then at her kid pointing a gun at her. She grabbed both sides of her head and started screaming. I reached over and pulled the gun out of the kids hands, and the kid immediately went to screaming. I looked at her and said in a real calm voice, "You were not invited in so I am telling you to get out, now". As she was running down the drive I yelled, "Don't ever come back uninvited". She yelled, "I won't, and I'm calling the sheriff".
My neighbor was sitting on his front porch drinking a beer, he got up and came over asking what had just happened. I told him and he said not to worry about it, he'd take care of her. My neighbor was both the City and County Magistrate. Never heard another word from it. Of course my wife did, but she did not care anyway. The women at work all agreed when the wife told her, "Too bad the Brat did not pull the trigger and shoot you, you don't come into someones home unannounced". "Surprised the Old Man was not sitting there in his underwear". The rest of the women laughed so hard she went home for the rest of the day. She never spoke to my wife again.
