Today's column
Today's column brings out all the usual suspects with all the usual (yawn) arguments for why the nation and the states can't -- and shouldn't -- further regulate firearms so they do not get in the hands of those who would use them to commit murders and mass killings. (Read comments tagged to the column.)
These folks are unfazed by mass killings - they must not have kids on college campuses, or headed there -- and some even say such killings are too rare to warrant any action. So they make my point -- that we've settled in a place and time where we will abide mass killings and handgun homicides on a regular basis; this kind of violence remains endlessly possible. The extreme gun lovers won't take the slightest baby step toward civil dialogue on the matter, and the political class is too intimidated by the gun lobby to even suggest a national conversation.
Comments
When I attended the University of Maryland, no one was concerned about some nutjob shooting up the lecture hall. Rather, we were concerned about getting mugged, since one of our fellow unarmed students got that treatment once every 2-3 weeks by some of the friendly, (illegally) armed residents of DC and PG County.
Posted by: Joe | February 17, 2008 7:21 PM
What's amazing to me is how many gun nuts employ the "logic" of arming everyone so that they can shoot down lunatics, whenever they decide to take their craziness out on innocents. Who in their right mind would send their kids to school or college, who would go to work, or to a sporting event, knowing that a majority of people are armed? Even though the vast majority of those people are decent and law abiding, the more guns would mean more gun theft, which would mean more thieves with guns, with would mean more violence. But I've probably moved about 10 steps beyond where most irrational gun owners, who are incapable of reason on this issue, can follow me. A country armed to the teeth is not one worth living in.
Posted by: Biff Tubesock | February 17, 2008 9:05 PM
I'm a former resident of Locust Point and now reside in Melbourne, Florida. We have less crime here than Baltimore does! Why.....because of our concealed wepons permits. The scumbags never know who's carrying.
Ron Kostin
Posted by: Ron Kostin | February 17, 2008 10:17 PM
Ron,
Comparing Baltimore's crime statistics to Melbourne, FL is like comparing the density of gentlemen's clubs in Tampa to Columbia, MD.
By the way, how is that concealed weapons law working down in Miami (also known as the 2nd most dangerous metropolitan area in the US)?
Posted by: MCG | February 20, 2008 10:38 AM