Talk to your guns about kids.
Stop fondling and caressing the damned things and have an honest conversation about things that really matter.
Well Mr. Smith, or maybe Mr. Smith and Wesson, Herr Glock or even Mr. Saturday N. Special, let’s get some myths out of the way.
First, stop pretending that you’re the reason I’m safe and free. If I left loaded guns every few feet along a kid’s path between school and home, not only would that kid not be any safer, I would have exponentially increased the danger to the child.
Second, stop claiming that a registry is some inevitable step toward seizure of your guns. Your behavior, not registration will determine that, just as it does every other thing that’s registered in this country.
Maybe concealed carry can actually fool people unaccustomed to sudden senseless violence, but let me assure you that people walk differently when the’re packing. They also have the bad habit of diminished ability to listen to reason. For example, the 911 operator tells Zimmerman not to follow anyone, to wait for the police, but he doesn't listen, doesn't need to listen. He’s armed, but suppose, just suppose, young Mr. Martin had been also. Suppose he decided to stand his ground.
And that is point three, IQ seems to dribble out through your ears the more you depend on guns instead of reason. You say things like, “If only someone in that school was armed.” When short of an AK-47 they would still have been outgunned.
What they needed, what would have helped was a shelter strong enough to hold out till help arrived. They and other institutions countrywide needed a panic room. They needed it the way tornado shelters are needed in tornado alley.
Guns turn adult imaginations into childish fantasy. People imagine winning every firefight. The plain fact is that all too often the fight will be over before they remember that they’re armed.
Jared Loughner wasn’t stopped by any of the armed people at Congresswoman Gifford’s event. He was taken down by unarmed while he was trying to reload. Even trained police officers have problems in the midst of a gunfight. Yet people imagine that they will never shoot an unarmed person, assume that merely showing a weapon will command instant obedience from career criminals.
Worse, they imagine how brave they will be once the bullets start flying. They never imagine, or rehearse mentally taking cover, getting away from conflict, waiting for the police or others trained for these situations. They never imagine where the bullet that misses will go. (Some of them will go through the walls of two apartments to kill or cripple an unintended victim in a third.)
Every bullet fired goes somewhere. Misses are more common than bulls-eyes. Hell, I've been shot at and missed at point blank range.
Thank God some people think mere possession of a gun guarantees accuracy.
God damn it, some people think mere possession of a gun guarantees accuracy, and we have dead and crippled innocents, dead and crippled children to prove it.
