Thursday, August 09, 2007

USA Today Gun Commentary

Here's an interesting exchange between USA Today conservative columnist Cal Thomas and liberal Dem strategist Bob Beckel on guns and gun control:
Cal: Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty's normally good political timing was a little off when he announced last month his intention to appeal the federal court decision. Fenty said the handgun ban "has saved many lives and will continue to do so if it remains in effect." The following week, four adults and three children were shot after visiting relatives. Fortunately, all survived. D.C. has been a shooting gallery for years despite the toughest gun laws in the country. As if to further mock the ineffectiveness of gun laws, the shootings occurred in the midst of a citywide crime-fighting effort.

Bob: Are you saying gun-control laws don't matter? Do you really believe the level of gun violence would be the same in D.C. without these laws? That is insanity. Without such laws, the number of victims in the District would increase dramatically. By the way, it doesn't help that D.C. borders Virginia, which has among the most lax gun laws in the country. If the Virginia Tech killer had faced D.C.-type gun laws, perhaps 32 lives would have been spared.

Cal: I hate to break this news to you, but people with criminal intent don't obey laws. Otherwise, they would not be criminals. There is much hypocrisy behind the cry for "tougher" gun laws, when those on the books are not obeyed.

Bob: No law is fully obeyed. That doesn't mean that a society shouldn't advocate sensible boundaries.
Gotta love the ole "sensible boundaries" argument. Interestingly enough, the two finally agree on gun locks, although Thomas notes that the locks must be easily removeable in case the gun is needed.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although admittedly there are several I've never had a chance (nor the interest) to handle, every gun lock I've ever handled would still let me fire the gun. I hate the damn things.

Kevin said...

All Cal needs to do is point Bob to the homicide statistics of Alexandria VA, which abuts DC. Virginia has much lower "sensible boundaries" than DC - and FAR lower violent crime rates.

For some reason, gun control activists never seem to see a connection between these two facts.

Not Available said...

One is stupid the other is evil. By coming together they are creating a stupid evil thing -- mandatory gun locks.

Anonymous said...

I suppose open carry would give both of these GFWs conniptions ...

Anonymous said...

The intent for making gun locks mandatory is to make sure that your gun is always locked, even if you "need" to use it. Get it? It's a prosecutor's and trial lawyer's trap. It's also another "clever" way for the anti-gunners to disarm you. It's akin to being allowed to have a gun, but the barrel needs to be welded shut.
A real "common sense" law would "suggest" that a gun that isn't currently being used, or relied on for security be locked for storage. If you're carrying it, or have it at the ready, then "common sense" would dictate that it BE UNLOCKED!
Call me Logical.

Anonymous said...

anyone ask dr petit for his opinion on guns/gunlocks? dmd

Anonymous said...

Convergence?

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070809222839.jzdcwmy8&show_article=1

"More than half of Americans say US news organizations are politically biased, inaccurate, and don't care about the people they report on, a poll published Thursday showed.

And poll respondents who use the Internet as their main source of news -- roughly one quarter of all Americans -- were even harsher with their criticism, the poll conducted by the Pew Research Center said.

More than two-thirds of the Internet users said they felt that news organizations don't care about the people they report on; 59 percent said their reporting was inaccurate; and 64 percent they were politically biased.

More than half -- 53 percent -- of Internet users also faulted the news organizations for "failing to stand up for America".

Among those who get their news from newspapers and television, criticism of the news organizations was up to 20 percentage points lower than among Internet news audiences, who tend to be younger and better educated than the public as a whole, according to Pew.

The poll indicates an across the board fall in the public's opinion on the news media since 1985, when a similar survey was conducted by Times Mirror, Pew Research said.

"Two decades ago, public attitudes about how news organizations do their job were less negative. Most people believed that news organizations stood up for America... a majority believed that news organizations got the facts straight," Pew said in a report.

The Washington-based Pew Research Center describes itself as a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world."

Anonymous said...

Don't just wish the liberals would be honest about their feelings of guns and the 2nd Amendment.

Of course they never will,because they know they would be racked over the coals. Instead, they pass meaningless laws which nit pick at our gun rights.