The new gun law
April 16th, 2008, 12:49 pm · Post a Comment · posted by fsherman
No surprise that we’ve seen letters all week in the Daily News discussing how being able to keep guns in our cars at work is the only thing standing between us and the hordes of ungodly savages who will descend on the work place, shoot us to pieces and ravage our women-folk (okay, that’s not how they put it, but that seems to be the subtext).
My favorite was the letter from a Niceville guy today admitting that some people “should never be allowed to own or carry guns” but defending the rights of “law-abiding, moral, well-trained, disciplined citizens who simply use guns as tools for hunting, sport and self-defense.”
This is what I think of as the NRA fantasy: A gun in the hands of a “law-abiding, moral, well-trained, disciplined citizen” will never be turned to any evil or foolish purpose because only unfit, vile, evil people will ever use a gun to hurt someone else.
Tommyrot. The fact is, even “law-abiding, moral, well-trained, disciplined citizens” are capable of picking up a gun in heat and blowing someone away. Or going off the deep end and ending up shooting people. Or shooting someone by mistake.
And of course, many of these “law-abiding, moral, well-trained, disciplined citizens” are the ones who scream blue murder at any attempt to keep guns out of the hands of genuine crazies, creepies, stalkers and sociopaths.
Don’t get me wrong: I don’t like guns myself, but I believe the Second Amendment entitles people to own them. But the fantasy that if we had more guns we’d wind up with more bad guys shot down and no rise in gun accidents or heat-of-the-moment shootings is just nonsense.
And I do believe businessses have the right to keep guns off their property, even if the guns would make us safer (which I doubt). Let’s face it, if it could be proven guns in cars made us less safe, the gun-lovers wouldn’t switch and support a ban — safety has never been the real issue.
