We’d rather protect guns than lives of good dads

By Steve Reba

When I read the article “Police: Auto shop death over $800 repair bill” last week, I immediately thought of the sweet voices that yell my name from across the street nearly every time I step out of my front door.

I thought of their mother. I thought of their father, George Tyrones, who was shot and killed at his auto shop Oct. 5.

My wife and I took our dog for a walk Tuesday evening down the same Decatur streets where George could be seen on any given day with a smile on his face and a vigilance for his daughters — merrily scooting along the streets off West Howard Avenue — that put the world on notice to the stock he placed in his fatherhood. George exuded a profound kindness, and those streets last Tuesday evening moaned with grief under the foggy lamps.

Staring out my window at the Tyrones’ empty home, I’m writing this, furious at the extermination of goodness and our cowardice in assuring its perpetuation.

He was shot in the head over an $800 transmission. No police officer could have stopped the irrational shooter. No gun of his own could have protected the hardworking mechanic from the customer who walked in the front door, charged him and shot him in the head.

The only thing that could have saved George was the irrational man’s inability to access a gun.

But, we’re unwilling to address that issue, right? Because people kill people, not guns.

Well, if we’re unwilling to somehow curtail the development of irrational people with things like first-rate education and mental health services — which we’re clearly averse to — then we better address the guns. If not both, it has to be one.

Maybe you’re perfectly comfortable with abstract rights trumping human life because you never saw George and his family playing on a Slip ’n Slide in their front yard or dancing together at Music on the Square in Decatur.

Maybe you’re unwilling to sacrifice because you never saw and, therefore, could not quantify George’s goodness. I saw it. It was great.

And aside from the people I love, I would give up anything to see George, his wife and their two girls walking our neighborhood streets again.

My wife is six months pregnant with our first child. And like George, I aim to be an incredibly caring father. A father that puts all else aside for his family. A father, like mine, who produces children who want to be like their father.

I know that is something the people of this city, this state and this country say they want. I simply question whether you have the courage to protect me.

Steve Reba lives in Decatur.