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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Guns, here and there
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the aftermath of Monday’s horror at Virginia Tech, two avenues of commentary have emerged. One is to wring our collective hands and bemoan the fact that all of us now live in a time and place where we are exposed to crazies. Acknowledging that, the hand-wringers further argue that we should try to make schools, college campuses, public places and other potential venues for large-scale violence secure by hiring more police or by developing elaborate warning systems.
The second avenue of commentary, incidentally, was entirely predictable — the prepackaged, ready-for-the-moment call for more gun control. For the remainder of our lives, until liberals find a way to repeal the Second Amendment, every tragedy involving misuse of a gun by a crazy, a flipped-out workplace shooter or a looney misfit, will be the media moment to key up the anti-gun campaign.
Certainly, political leaders who favor the Second Amendment should be mindful of the news and avoid becoming an extension of an urelated tragedy. That would have been the case here Tuesday had the Georgia Senate not postponed a vote on a measure to allow people without felony convictions or a history of mental illness to keep legally purchased guns anywhere in their cars. Another bill tacked on would prohibit employers from denying their workers the right to have a gun in their locked car at work.
Timing matters. Considering the bill on Tuesday would have fed the critics and subjected senators to the damning charge of “insensitivity.” But having waited, the Senate cannot now fail to act, either by passing or defeating the bill before adjournment Friday, lest they confirm the argument of gun-control advocates that guns, and their availability, are the problem.
As to the nation’s search for security, the plain truth is that we could hire two-thirds of the population and assign them to “protect” the remaining third — and still not provide the security that would prevent future massacres. And we could round up all the guns, and that wouldn’t stop them either.
