Can't We get practical about guns?

You've heard the old canard that "guns don't kill people, people kill people." In other words, if a person wants to kill someone they'll find a way. With that kind of logic, though, why are we so concerned about airport security? Or national security for that matter?

E.J. Dionne yesterday raised the question of pragmatic gun control talk. Unfortunately the gun lobby always reacts with a big fat "NO!!" to such talk of regulation of gun ownership and use. But why? Sometimes we hear that they'll take away our right to hunt. Who said that? PETA? But what hunter needs an AK-47 or an Uzi to get that deer or duck? And why do you need a 15 bullet clip?

Consider this:

Our country is a laughingstock on the rest of the planet because of our devotion to unlimited gun rights. On Thursday, an Australian newspaper carried this headline: "America, the gun club."

John Howard, the solidly right-wing Australian prime minister closely allied with President Bush, bragged this week that when a mass killing took place in Australia in 1996, "we took action to limit the availability of guns, and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country." No doubt the NRA will mount a boycott of Foster's beer.


So, let's get real and stop the "us against them," either-or talk and make some responsible laws. Then maybe we could cut down on some of this violence. As we saw on the streets of Santa Barbara, you can kill with a sharpened stick, but you can kill a lot more a lot quicker with a semi-automatic gun with a 15 bullet clip!

Comments

Anonymous said…
"No doubt the NRA will mount a boycott of Foster's beer." As long as there is no boycott of GOOD Aussie beers like Crown Lager, o.k.! :-) Foster's is Australian for cheap, lousy beer.

Good post.
Robert Cornwall said…
Michael,

Thanks for the clarification there -- Being that I'm as much of a beer connoiseur as I am a gun owner -- in other words I'm not -- I wouldn't have known that Foster's is Aussie for cheap. It's a good thing Dionne didn't mention the good stuff.

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