Phil Spector Goes to Jail

CNN reports on the conviction of Phil Spector on 2nd Degree Murder charges in the death of actress Lana Clarkson more than six years ago. Spector was practically a household name, originally for his career as a music producer, but more recently for his well publicized trial in 2007 which ended in a hung jury. After O.J. and Robert Blake, it was beginning to look like the big-shot misogynists of Hollywood could get away with murder, but not Phil.

Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler declined to allow Spector to remain free on bail pending sentencing, citing Spector's years-long "pattern of violence" involving firearms.

"This was not an isolated incident," Fidler said, noting Spector's two previous firearm-related convictions from the 1970s. "The taking of an innocent human life, it doesn't get any more serious than that."

In closing arguments at the retrial, prosecutor Truc Do called Spector "a very dangerous man" who "has a history of playing Russian roulette with women -- six women. Lana just happened to be the sixth."

I suppose Phil Spector could be considered just another American exercising his "right" to have guns, his freedom to protect himself. At some point in his history, I suppose, he was one of the law-abiding gun owners. Then he started crossing the line, abusing women, using weapons to abuse women. Six years ago it went way too far.

What does this have to do with lawful and responsible gun owners? An awful lot, is what I say. The fact is the Phil Spectors of the world represent a significant percentage of the gun owning public. You can quibble about how much is "significant," whether 20% or 1%, but the fact remains when we're talking about a group as large as 50,000,000 and you take a percentage of that group, even a small percentage, you've got a lot of dangerous people.

Surely, you cry, they aren't all as dramatically criminal as Phil, playing Russian Roulette and such. I say that's true, many aren't nearly as colorful and inventive as old Phil, but many are worse. The point is it's wrong for gun owners to keep shrugging their shoulders and saying, "It's not my problem, I obey the laws."

If I were a gun owner, I swear I'd be doing everything within my power to limit the availability of guns. As a gun owner, I'd be cooperating with the gun-control movements to find ways to prevent these all-too-common abuses. Above all, I'd stop pretending that my responsibility ends with the maintenance and handling of my own personal weapons. It extends far beyond that, into the society which I have helped to shape by my attitude towards guns and gun control.

What's your opinion? Is it fair to say that gun owners share in the responsibility of gun violence? I'm really talking philosophically, but even practically I'd say they share in the guilt. Take a guy like Phil Spector and all the others who are, let's say, less than responsible and prudent in the handling of their guns. Do you think guys like that keep their actions a total secret? Are they completely isolated from all other gun owners? I don't think so. What about the shooting range where they practice? How about the gun store where they buy weapons and ammunition. How about their shooting buddies? How about their drinking buddies, with whom they talk, brag even? How about the people, usually other gun owners, who witness dangerous and irresponsible gun handling and say nothing?

What it adds up to is for every offender among the gun owning public, you've got another 5 or 10 gun owners who know about the improper activity but let it go. It's not just the Spectors and the Poplawskis and the Adkissons, it's many others too. Those headline grabbers did not act in a vacuum. Shame on you, shame on you all.

I realize the above descriptions are totally inapplicable to the majority of lawful gun owners. But, that brings us back to the basic ideas of gun availability contributing to daily avoidable gun deaths and the never-ending action of gun flow - guns flow from the good guys to the bad, and good guys themselves go bad. The more people support so-called gun rights the more they contribute to these dark forces in American society.

That's the way I see it. How about you? What's your opinion?