“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 1
For two years, in between carpools, I transferred between the bus and the subway at the Pentagon subway station in Arlington, Va., where yesterday some yahoo with a gun cut loose.
Just to be clear, I am against prohibiting firearms. I like shooting and I’m pretty good when I’m in practice. Guns are neither inherently good nor bad. At the same time . . . .
The gunnutters need to realize that guns are nasty, smelly, dangerous things than can be used to do bad stuff, to stop believing the myths of gun fights as protrayed in Hollywood oaters. There is no nobility in being shot by a whacko. nor in unleashing whackos to shoot.
They need to realize it. But they won’t.
Despite the slogan, guns do kill people (and other things). Killing is their purpose. Killing is why they were invented.
Get real.
Suppose this guy had been armed with a bowie knife? Someone might have gotten hurt, but nobody would be dead.
March 6, 2010 at 11:00 am
The New York Times, in a March 4 article, attempted to place the blame for the shootings on Virginia’s gun laws which the Times characterized as “…some of the most lax gun laws in the nation…” Apparently the Times’ reporters didn’t bother to check the facts. If they had, they would have learned that Bedell purchased his gun in California which has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation.
It probably has less to do with gun control and more to do with someone dropping the ball, ignoring warnings, or a general failure in the system. There were numerous indications this guy was a danger and nothing was done to keep him from purchasing a gun.