Setting the Record
Straight--On Guns
And Flying Pigs
The time has come, the walrus said,
To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax,
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot,
And whether pigs have wings.
Columbine, Virginia Tech, Helsinki, Omaha
Then Kirkwood, Louisiana Tech, Portsmouth, Los Angeles, Lane Bryant, DeKalb Next?
The incidents go on and on and what is the National Rifle Associa- tion's response? "Guns don't kill people, people do." That is a non-se- quitur response, as it was intended to be -- deflect the question you do not want to hear and turn it to something else. Who said guns kill people?
The matter that needs to be addressed is the easy access to guns by people who will do stupid things with them, causing far more destruc- tion and death than with any weapon that does not rely on an explosive force.
These are weapons of destruction, just as deadly as smoking tobac- co, and much more efficient and quick about it. It is far more irresponsi- ble to allow firearms to be widely and easily available than to allow cig- arettes to be available, yet even the laws that exist to govern guns are far less strict than those applied to tobacco.
The only tobacco restrictions are decades of "just don't advertise them on TV" to today's restrictions on where you smoke, not at all on whether you can smoke at all. Despite all the evidence that smoking tobacco is a lethal cancer-causing addictive, tobacco companies still push them, and change their corporate names so you can no longer identify the perpetrators.
The NRA never offers comments about any of these massacres because it pretends that guns are Mayors for laws not associated with them, that the events have noth- thing to do with guns.
Well, we need to talk about this subject, in- stead of talking about whether pigs have wings and pretending the world is the reverse of what it is and citing only part of the Second Amendment and pre- tending it says other than what it says.
If we do not, there will continue to be Columbines and Virginia Techs and Helsinkis and Omahas and on and on on. The why is not the issue for the common weal, it is the how that counts. There will continue to be the pretense that possession of guns is worthwhile because some peo- ple can use them to protect their property -- the NRA never misses a chance to note those times that such use is successful in one out of the thousand times they are kept for that purpose. It blithely ignores the other 999 cases in which the possession of a gun leads to tragedy be- falling the possessor.
Here are some possible actions that can be taken at the federal lev- el, the only level where any restrictions can be an effective check, begin- ning with the smallest and building to the ultimate.
Go ahead and institute those mental-condition checks. One might also include everyone seeking "fame" in today's society of sycophants.
Otherwise, do something useful, beginning with what the NRA will label the camel's nose under the tent, and let us hope it is at least that:
--Ban sales of firearms to anyone under 21, just as selling cigarettes is restricted.
--Hold a firearm possessor liable for any damages caused by an under-age person using that firearm.
--Ban personal concealment of firearm while not in one's home.
--Require all firearms in personal possession to be kept locked up.
--Ban all but supervised and licensed possession of handguns.
--Expand the ban to all firearms.
--Ban all handguns.
--Ban the private possession of all firearms.
--Restrict the possession of firearms by law enforcers.
--Restrict even the use of firearms by law enforcers.
--Ban all firearms not kept by state militias (National Guard), just to be in compliance with the Second Amendment.
The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all its might.
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright.
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
And so said Tweedledum to Tweedledee
Alice Through the Looking Glass
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