It's frightening to see the reactions of Texas officials to Newtown (4.00 / 2)

Everybody knows that crazy people with guns are dangerous. What people forget is that the biggest danger isn't crazy people getting guns. It's people with guns going crazy. The only way to reduce that risk is to have fewer people with guns in the first place.  

This is partly a matter of legislation. There's no reason for anybody to have armor-piercing bullets or high-capacity magazines. Those can and should be outlawed. But the most important thing we can do is to address the gun culture in this country, and especially in Texas.

Yes, there are legitimate uses for guns. Yes, there is a constitutional right to bear arms. But that doesn't make gun ownership a good idea. If you don't need a gun (and most of us don't), don't buy one. Stop acting like it's normal to own weapons of widespread (if not mass) destruction. Stop the push for concealed carry in schools.

Over the last generation, we have cut the number of drunk driving deaths in half, mostly by making it socially unacceptable to drive drunk. We need to make it just as unacceptable to own a gun that you don't know how to use, to own a gun that's way more powerful than you'll ever need, or to own a gun from a vague sense of "you never know when you might need it".

If you hunt, it's OK to own a hunting rifle (not an AR-15). If you target shoot, it's OK to own a target pistol. If you run a convenience store in a tough part of town, it's OK to own a handgun. But the rest of us need to leave the policing to the police.

Sadly, people like Jerry Patterson and Louie Gohmert are pushing us in the direction of more and more violent death.  

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by: LSadun @ Wed Dec 19, 2012 at 18:05:32 PM UTC