Fear Motivates

I'm always fascinated by the pro-gun guys' explanations of why they carry. Usually it's disguised as a calm and rational decision, often likened the carrying of any other tool. Sometimes they try to emphasize the crime problem and the likelihood of their becoming a victim of violence. Bob S. is one of the best at this. Here's one of many examples. Here's one of my many answers.

A few days ago we were treated to a rare glimpse into the true reason. Mike W. included the following line in a post about his trip to North Carolina for the convention last week.

Had I flown I likely would not have carried, but there was no way I was going to drive 9 hours alone & unarmed throughout the night.

I'm sure Mike W. and Bob S., for that matter, would be able to offer lengthy denials, but my contention has always been that they suffer from inordinate fears. The above statement is so telling, it's so revealing, that it's embarrassing. A grown man afraid to drive "throughout the night" without a gun!

It wouldn't be so embarrassing except he's talking about driving on I-95, for crying out loud. That's one of the best highways in the country. There are no detours through any inner cities, you've got that ring road that goes right around Washington D.C.

If the assignment had been to drive through Newark NJ, make your way up to the George Washington Bridge, go over into Harlem, then make your way over to some dicey section of the Bronx, I could understand it. But this, is pathetic.

Some have asked, "So what? What if we are motivated by fear?" Well the problem is this. When the gun owner is operating on unreasonable fears, they cannot be trusted to handle the grave responsibility of carrying a gun. These are people who may make life or death decisions based upon their perceptions and judgment. An example of Mike W.'s judgment is "but there was no way I was going to drive 9 hours alone & unarmed throughout the night."

What's your opinion? Are you concerned that the more nervous and skittish among the gun owners may do more harm than good?

Please leave a comment.

Travesty of Justice in Georgia

The Macon News reports on the seriousness with which the local school system took the incident of a 9-year-old carrying a gun to school to protect himself from a bully.

A 9-year-old boy who took a handgun to Morgan Elementary School earlier this year pleaded guilty in Bibb County Juvenile Court on Friday to a felony count of possessing a weapon on school grounds.

The third-grader also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of possession of a pistol by an underage person and disrupting a public school.

The boy took a Ruger handgun with six bullets in the clip, but none in the chamber, out of his mother’s purse Feb. 26 and carried it in his backpack to the Bibb County elementary school.

A fifth-grader was threatening to beat him up, attorneys said, and he took the gun to show students so they would think he was cool.

The mother should be in jail. She should forfeit her rights to own firearms for having demonstrated such a complete inability to secure this handgun properly. The rest of the family should be investigated to see what other breaches of the law they're guilty of. (I realize, in Georgia these laws may not exist).

After that, the fifth-grade bully should be investigated and if warranted, suspended from school.

Only then should we get around to the boy in question.

But in Georgia, they have their own priorities. Gun rights are to be protected first, we couldn't possibly cast aspersions on the mom for exercising her right to own a gun. And, being a macho little bully in school is good too, it teaches the other kids to toughen up.

The judge perfectly upheld these sick priorities. It's no wonder Georgia is one of the most backward states in the country.

Juvenile Court Judge Quintress Gilbert asked the 9-year-old why he didn’t tell a teacher or his parents about the bullying.

“I’m also asking the parents to lock up their guns and put them in a place of safety,” the judge said.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Like Father Like Son

CNN reports on the highly dramatic shootout that left two cops and two suspects dead in Arkansas.

Two suspects accused of gunning down Arkansas police officers this week may have ties to extremist anti-government groups, two civil rights organizations say.

Jerry R. Kane, 45, and his 16-year-old son Joseph Kane fatally shot two police officers and wounded two others during a wild shootout Thursday, according to Arkansas state police.

The father and son were shot and killed during the battle on the streets of West Memphis, Arkansas.

The Anti-Defamation League said the two suspects belonged to "an extreme right-wing movement that believes that virtually all existing government in the United States is illegitimate and which seeks to restore an idealized, minimalist government that never actually existed."

It sounds like a familiar theme, the anti-government one. Is it so difficult to identify the ones who cross the line from the more acceptable complaining about big government to the dangerous category which guys like this inhabit? Do you think the government doesn't have lists to do just that? Is it wrong?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Dennis Henigan on the Calderon Speech

The Brady Blog contained a wonderful post by Dennis Henigan. As if in response to the pro-gun reaction to the Mexican president's speech, Henigan makes a case for the gun control side.

Unlike many of our own political leaders, President Calderon understands that the American people have as much at stake on this issue as the Mexican people. He told Congress: “Today, these weapons are aimed by the criminals not only at rival gangs but also at Mexican civilians and authorities. And with all due respect, if you do not regulate the sale of these weapons in the right way, nothing guarantees that criminals here in the United States with access to the same power of weapons will not decide to challenge the American authorities and civilians.”

The Mexican President was being diplomatic. Criminals with assault weapons challenging American police and civilians represent not a future prospect, but today’s continuing and tragic reality. As Congress listened to Calderon’s words, two Arkansas police officers lay fatally wounded. What more justification for action does Congress need?

What do you think? Are there probably some handguns going south of the border too? I guess the gun dealers and manufacturers are making out like bandits, eh? And, of course, the NRA and gun owners at large have their own stake in the game. But, it's bad news and something should be done.

And then there is President Obama. He should be profoundly embarrassed that it took the President of another country to call on Congress to take action on guns, while he and his Administration cower in fear of the gun lobby. If our President ever summons the courage to ask Congress to do the right thing on guns, he need look no further than the words of President Calderon: “I admire the American Constitution, and I understand that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to guarantee good American citizens the ability to defend themselves and their Nation. But believe me, many of these guns are not going to honest American hands.”

President Calderon understands that it does no damage to the Second Amendment to protect police officers from assault weapons. Thank you, Mr. President, for speaking for our people, as well as your own.

Are you listening, President Obama?

It is still a bit of a mystery to me that Obama has failed so badly in this. I'm hoping Sarah Palin was right at the NRA Convention and that we'll see the results in Obama's second term.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Canadian Gun Dealer Arrested

Seattlepi reports.

Federal agents said Thursday they have arrested a Canadian gun dealer who kept a stash of sniper rifles and ammunition at a Washington storage unit near the U.S. northern border.

Oliver King - who also uses his given name, Hamid Malekpour - was arrested Wednesday in Ferndale, which is about 10 miles south of the Canadian border. He made an initial appearance Thursday at U.S. District Court in Seattle on charges of making false statements to a government agency and being an alien in possession of firearms.

"Being and alien in possession of firearms?" Now that's a law I'll bet FatWhiteMan can get behind. What do you think?

Glenn Beck Meets Tony Soprano

The No-Fly List

FishyJay sent us the link for this fascinating story about the no-fly list.

The United States has issued a written apology to a jet-setting billionaire businessman with close ties to former President Bill Clinton whose name was added to the no-fly list in the wake of the attempted Christmas day bombing of an American passenger plane.

Gilbert Chagoury, 64, a Nigerian citizen of Lebanese descent, was pulled off a private jet Jan. 15 at Teterboro airport in New Jersey and detained for more than four hours after federal agents discovered his name was on the then-recently updated no-fly list.

It seems there was a tenuous connection between a Nigerian banker of Chagoury's acquaintance and the Christmas day bomber. Part of the government's explanation was this:

"Please understand that in order to detect those international travelers involved in illicit activities, we must, at times, unfortunately inconvenience law-abiding travelers," the DHS official wrote to Chagoury in April.

What's your opinion? Doesn't that make sense? Of course it does, but it brings up a disquieting concern.

If it was difficult for a politically-connected billionaire to restore his privileges to fly into the United States, what about ordinary people entangled in the enhanced screening for the no-fly list?

What do you think? Is it worth it that some people will be inconvenienced in order for the government to do its job of searching out terrorists? Aren't the stakes too high to allow everyone free movement unless they've already been convicted of terror related crimes? Don't you think it's possible to ensure this terror-list policy is not abused, short of eliminating the whole thing?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.