04 March 2008

Another mass shooting!

I want to get away from the Second Amendment and gun control rubbish, but yet another shooting happened at a West Palm Beach, Florida Wendy's where two people are dead and five are injured.

Florida is a shall issue state, which according to John Lott means that stuff like this shouldn't happen, as it shouldn't have happened at Virginia Tech.

Of course, the "RKBA" crowd will start screaming for yet more guns when more guns is the problem.

The RKBA crowd wants to drown out songs like Cheryl Wheeler's "If it were Up to me" that has the line "If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns." They don't want people to realise that something needs to be done about the uncontrolled proliferation of firearms. There is too much talk about "gun rights" and none about gun responsibilities.

Of course, there is no such thing as "gun rights", but the politicians are too cowardly to say that. And they are even more cowardly to not bring up gun responsibilities when the term "gun rights" is used.

RKBA folk like to say that cars, cigarettes, alcohol, and so are cause more deaths than do guns. the problem with that argument is that cars are useful. I would argue that we should wean the US from its cars in favour of mass transit, but cars are useful. On the other hand, I have to be taught to drive, licenced, insured, and my car is registered. I can't just get a car and drive it. I am also expected to drive responsibly or I can get hammered civilly and criminally.

I have the freedom to write and post this on the internet. Maybe people will read what I write and see that there are people who are frustrated by this lack of responsibility on the part of people who scream for their "rights". Maybe more of us will link up and work to vote for real change.

Maybe we will begin to see leadership in the media who pander to this talk of gun rights, yet don't do what they can to show that this is a myth, like John Lott's statistics.

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