Enough is enough.

I am a Thelemite. I sign off on Liber Oz which lists the “Rights of Man” and asserts “man has the right to kill those who would thwart those rights.” I worked out how I feel about that when I was twelve and told my dad I am a pacifist who would never kill another human being. He said, “I would kill someone who tried to harm you.” After some meditation I decided that I was okay with defending myself.

I am a woman who walks in remote places and sleeps in isolated houses. Women in our culture are routinely beaten, raped and killed. Sometimes women wake up being skinned alive, which in the risk assessment of life ranks as a very low probability but unacceptably high impact.

So I own a gun. At home with the family it lives in a locked case under my bed. I also have a concealed carry permit. When I walk in remote places I carry the gun. When I sleep in isolated houses alone the gun lives on my bedside table and the dog sleeps beside me. She has a wake-the-dead alarm bark. The deal is, she wakes me up, and I defend us. I hope to die never having fired my gun except at the range.

I have a friend who lives in Marysville, Washington. The school shooting there was so small it barely made the national news for a day. My friend was out on the street in the cul-de-sac with all her neighbors when the police came to talk to the parents. My friend asked “What about the girl?” and one of the cops turned to the other and said, “She was the one with braces.” I know someone who knows someone who lost a child. That’s how many children are dying in schools.

In America we have decided to pen up our children as targets for crazy people with guns. On March 14 many kids walked out of school to protest. Three of the marchers in Arkansas were “paddled” on their return. So now we have the spectacle of actually beating the kids to get back in the pen to get shot.

When I bought my gun I took a gun safety class. I believe everyone who owns a gun should be required to demonstrate that they have taken a gun safety class. I don’t think any private citizen needs an automatic rifle. The hysteria around the idea that there should be limits on who owns guns seems to me to be fanned by the people who benefit from gun sales. Gun control affects profits.

I am a Thelemite gun owner who wholeheartedly believes in gun control. I am marching with the kids today in the March for Our Lives. They have a right to stop those who would thwart their right to live. Enough is enough.