Guns 'N Bozos
Wednesday, March 22, 2000
The issues of guns, gun ownership, gun safety, guns and children, guns and butter, guns into plowshares, and all the other permutations and combinations involving firearms became all-day-all-night-all-news-all-the-time fodder for the chat shows this past week after comments by the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. Wayne LaPierre said President Clinton is "willing to accept a certain level of killing to further his political agenda."
There has been no shortage of people - on all sides of the gun issue - who have raced out to excoriate LaPierre for his language. And properly so. No one should say, in the course of normal political dialogue, that the "President has blood on his hands."
The National Righteous Indignation Meter may have hit a record level this week. The National Hypocrisy Meter is not far behind.
As an example: Given the amount of wailing and hand wringing in and by the press this week you might think, looking back at the abysmal language used by the House Democrats - day after day after day - to describe a colleague (Newt Gingrich) there must have been daily torchlight parades from the House Press, Radio-TV, and Periodical galleries to the House Democratic cloakroom in protest. Nah.
Another example: The Democratic National Committee and their allies at the AFL-CIO were alleged to have been behind a series of radio ads on radio stations which program to African-American audiences during the 1998 elections which started out with the sound of a bomb going off, and continued with an announcer warning that Republican election victories would result in the bombing of more churches.
Here's the syllogism the ads were laying out: Republicans bomb churches. I am a Republican. Therefore, I bomb churches.
What was the reaction to those ads from a national press corps ever on guard to protect an innocent nation against unfair and excessive political rhetoric? "What time do the polls close in Wyoming?" Or words to a like effect.
People on both sides of the gun issue use the worst possible examples to make their cases. Pro-gun people say they want "reasonable" laws and regulations regarding safety, but they really don't want any.
Anti-gun people say they don't mind people having guns for sport shooting, but they really do believe hunters are killing little Bambi and little Tweety Bird.
The NRA says the Clinton administration is not enforcing current laws - especially those dealing with felons buying guns. The Administration says there are upwards of 150,000 such cases a year and prosecuting them would only serve to clog the justice system beyond any ability to function.
In the case of criminals trying to buy guns, it seems to me simply turning down the request and, perhaps, having the would-be purchasers sign a form saying they understand it is illegal for people with felony convictions to own guns would be preferable to throwing up the collective hands of the Federal judicial system because there are too few Feds and too many people trying to buy guns.
On the issue of trigger locks, make it a secondary offense, like not wearing a seat belt. You probably will not be stopped on a seat belt rap unless you are in an accident at which time you will get a ticket if you weren't wearing one. Similarly, if a gun is used illegally and the owner didn't have the trigger lock in place, then the owner of the gun would be liable to some degree, but there will be no house-to-house searches for trigger locks as opponents warn.
Neither side is the least bit shy about the callous use of gun tragedies for political advantage.
I guarantee Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham is going to play "First-Lady-For-A-Day" on April 20 - the anniversary of the Columbine tragedy.
The NRA will continue to brag about the new memberships it has garnered - they are claiming over 7,000 as of now - in the wake of Wayne LaPierre's excessive words.
I think we're ALL bozos on this bus.
-- END --
Home | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?
Copyright �2000 Richard A. Galen | Site design by Campaign Solutions.
|
