Letter: We live in a prison made of guns

To the Editor-

I lived next door to Grandpy Sandy for the first 16 years of my life. The story passed down to this little kid was the reason we never had guns in our family was that one of Grandpy’s brothers shot another one cleaning a gun.

Well, last month I happened upon some old newspaper clippings. I was gobsmacked. First, our name was originally spelled Hurysz. Second, the brother story wasn’t accurate.

Frontpage Stevens Point Journal Dec 5, 1902:

“Father Shot by Son”

George Hurysz was accidentally shot by his oldest son. Hurysz and his oldest son, Kisl, a boy about 18 years of age, had spent a part of the forenoon hunting rabbits in the woods near their home. After dinner the boy took his gun, a muzzle-loading shotgun, cleaned and oiled it, and then reloaded the weapon. He lifted the hammer for the purpose of putting a cap in its place, when the gun discharged and the entire charge struck the father in the right side of his forehead. He fell to the floor, unconscious, and expired within a few minutes. The accident happened in a living room of the house, a new one Mr. Hurysz had built during the past summer, and was witnessed by the mother and the 11 children.

The family agrees that there was no trouble between the father and the son, and they were all laughing and joking together when the terrible accident occurred. That the shooting was purely accidental there is no question, and when the mother and son appeared before Judge Murat and Coroner Boston Monday morning and repeated the facts, the latter decided that it would not be necessary to hold an inquest. The deceased was about 47 years of age, a native of Poland and had resided in this county a number of years. He had a good farm, was meeting with success and is survived by a widow and 11 children.

Can you imagine what young Kisl would think if he could drop into 2022? A firearm is now an AR15, which fires 223 rounds. It was first developed for Vietnam. Rabbit hunters like Kisl, must need them. They call it freedom. Because America did nothing to stop the proliferation of AR15s they began selling in large numbers in 2008. Kisl, did you know in 2008 America elected its first black president?

We now have new steps in our death dance with firearms: the mass shooting of public servants, blacks, cops, school kids, worshippers, boogie-woogie dancers, and all the places where we now die. Most of us believe guns are the antithesis of freedom. We live in a prison of guns, the floors slick with blood, and we keep sliding around instead of cleaning up.

You can keep your guns, or you can keep shooting each other. It’s a real Sophie’s Choice. The Hurrish family made its choice 120 years ago.

Jodi Hurrish

Stevens Point