Monday, January 10, 2011

Guns don't kill people do

Gun's don't kill people do, the mantra of the NRA will undoubtly will be heard again and again.
It is not that the gun was evil, but that it was in the hands of an evil person,” Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) assures us on Meet the Press. Echoes the Tea Party’s Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) on CNN: No laws curtailing gun ownership could stop a person “bent on performing evil acts to kill another person.”

Is that so? If the Tucson madman did not easily and legally acquire his gun and the large magazine of bullets with it, would he have been able to vent his evil on a crowd of people, killing at least six and wounding 13?

Of course not. Guns kill people. A single gun can kills lots of them in seconds. A single knife can’t. The gun has a unique utility for translating rage into instant killing. The gunman can get close, concealing the weapon, and take the victims by surprise. The counterargument is that if a victim has a gun, the gunman won’t try. There is something in that. But the attacker always has the benefit of surprise. Sadly, it didn’t help Rep. Gabrielle Giffords that she is a gun owner and a keen Second Amendment supporter. Banks are well-defended but still get robbed.
While I believe in owning a gun, there must be a better way to regulate how many bullets a gun can shoot in one second. I mean if we can tell auto makers how many MPG they need to have, can't we tell gun mfg's, no assault weapons, to civilians.

1 comment:

Baxter said...

Terry -

Of course, you are right. However, this is not a path that the Democrats want to tread. Most Americans favor reasonable gun control, but they are not passionate on the subject. The NRA crowd - a legitimate grass roots organization - feels very strongly about the issue. If Al Gore had sidled up with the gun lobby in 2000, he wouldn't have lost West Virginia and probably not Tennessee either. The assault weapons ban was key driver in the Republicans capture of Congress in 1994. This issue has brought the center and left no joy whatsoever.

Lets keep talking about changing the tone and avoid any legislation curbing gun sales. It will not pass this Republican House and it will be used to beat the good guys the next time around.