Shortly before 3 p.m., a single shot rang out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.I can just hear Michael Corleone yelling, "WHERE MY WIFE SLEEPS, where my children come to play with their toys." I would have said, "WHERE REMBRANDT'S PAINTINGS HANG, where my children come to visit on summer vacations."
Not in the Russell B. Aitken Gallery of firearms, where the 16th-century double-barreled wheellock pistol made for Emperor Charles V and the 17th-century gilded French flintlock are housed.
It was down in a basement locker room, where a security guard cleaning his .38-caliber Colt accidentally shot himself in the leg.
The guard, whose injuries were not life-threatening, is one of a limited number at the museum authorized to carry weapons, said Harold Holzer, a spokesman for the museum. They are not allowed to take them out of the building, Mr. Holzer said, so they maintain and clean them on the premises.
You know what the story tells us, don't you. No place is safe. Too many lawful gun owners, even professionally trained men, actually turn out to be unfit and dangerous.
Yet, the gun-rights fanatics resist at every turn the simple restrictions which would weed out some of the worst of these characters. And to make matters worse, they just love to issue nothing more than a slap on the wrist when one of them does demonstrate negligence.
What's your opinion? I can't repeat it enough. One-strike-you're-out is the appropriate response to any incident of negligence. Gun rights must be removed from the unfit and irresponsible.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.