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MY WORD - 07/02/2008
(by Holly Stewart - OpEd Columnist - July 01, 2008)
Our twisted gun-loving logic
The NRA says that “guns don’t kill people, people do,” but I think the gun helps, you know? – Eddie Izzard
Last Thursday was quite a day for guns in America. The Supreme Court decided in a 5-4 vote that the District of Columbia’s ban against handguns was unconstitutional. Citizens of D.C. are now free to keep registered handguns in their homes for protection. It strikes me as funny that they still lack the ability to elect congressional representatives, but I suppose that’s an argument to be settled some other time. Let’s just hope these good people don’t all go nuts at once and hold our government hostage at gunpoint. Hmm, on second thought, maybe that’s not such a bad idea.
Just hours after that landmark decision was made public, a man walked into the YMCA in Montclair and shot his estranged wife to death with a handgun. The couple had exchanged words in the observation area outside a pool where their son was taking a swimming lesson. Then the man pulled out a gun and fired at his wife repeatedly. Monica Paul was pronounced dead shortly afterwards. Last fall she had a restraining order placed on the suspected shooter, Anton Duckett, who reportedly fled the shooting scene with an accomplice.
Meanwhile, less than 20 miles west of that tragedy, a family in Dover was coming to terms with the loss of their 21-year-old son, Ruben Martinez. Martinez had been stopped by Denville police for speeding in the wee hours of Thursday morning but took off before the officer could confront him. Early reports suggested that Martinez dragged the officer with him as he sped away, but this has not been confirmed. After a lengthy chase through a residential neighborhood, the young man crashed through a fence and into an above ground pool. He was fleeing the scene on foot when the officer fired his gun; five bullets found Martinez’ body.
I am not close enough to either of these unfortunate incidents to make solid judgments about them at this time. They are just local examples of how people use handguns to kill other people. Because of their size and portability, handguns are the choice weapons of both law enforcement and criminals. Pro-gun folks say that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. They also say that when only police are allowed to carry guns, we will be living in a police state – as if we weren’t practically there already.
For the record, I am not completely anti-gun. I have no problem with private citizens keeping rifles for hunting and protection purposes. But handguns are another matter altogether. Ten out of 10 assassins agree that a revolver or a pistol will get the job done when no other weapon will suffice. Robert Kennedy and John Lennon are just two great men killed by handguns in the recent past. Even Lynyrd Skynyrd, those southern rock bastions of redneck sensibility, included the line “handguns are made for killing/they ain’t no good for nothing else” in their song “Saturday Night Special.”
It’s all about interpretation, you see. When the Second Amendment was written in 1789, there were no handguns, only flintlock rifles and pistols. They were big and clunky and difficult to reload. They could not be hidden in a jacket pocket and whipped out for sudden use. In those days, there was no organized military machine in America; the Continental Army was a rag-tag assembly unable to keep soldiers properly clothed and fed through winter. Militias were called up periodically; all able-bodied men were expected to defend their homes by whatever means necessary. For most early Americans, that meant keeping a few rifles over the hearth.
In 2005, there were 29,684 violence-related firearm deaths in the United States. That averages out to 81 fatalities per day, which places America fourth in a list of firearm deaths by country. We’re right behind South Africa, Columbia and Thailand and just ahead of the Philippines. By golly, there’s something to just brim with pride about as we celebrate our nation’s birthday, isn’t it?
Twenty years ago, as he did with so many other cultural issues in America, George Carlin put his finger on the insanity of our national love affair with handguns. He said, “Now I understand they’re going to ban all the toy guns ... and keep the (expletive deleted) real ones!”
If only it could be the other way around, we’d have to return to the days of killing each other with knives and heavy objects directed at the cranium.
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