Leonard Pitts Jr. wrote for the Detroit Free Press:
So it was painful to watch last week as the will of the people was overturned and one of Arizona's duly elected representatives was forced from office. It wasn't a recall vote or scandal that did it. No, the people's will was overturned by a gun.
Here he offers this description of the problem:
At the very least, we need to have a serious national dialog about these and other possible solutions.I'm not sure who those lefty extremists he's talking about are. Certainly the position on this blog, and the others I know of, is much more reasonable than wanting to disarm EVERYONE.
But we won't. Too many on the political left still seem to harbor a fantasy of getting rid of all guns and refuse to distinguish between responsible gun owners and those criminals or deranged people who have no business with firearms. Too many on the political right still harbor the paranoid delusion that any talk of gun control is code for confiscation by jackbooted thugs riding black helicopters.
So nobody talks. Nobody listens. Meantime, our unwillingness to get serious about an epidemic of gun violence brings us the equivalent of 11 Columbine massacres every week -- three 9/11s every year. Every once in a while, as now, it even overturns an election. The carnage goes on, and on.
And sadly, that, too, reflects the people's will.
On the other hand I recognize the righty paranoia that says "any talk of gun control is code for confiscation by jackbooted thugs riding black helicopters." I find that a fairly commonplace attitude on the pro-gun blogs.
My conclusion, unlike that of Mr. Pitts who has described an even-handed blaming of both extremes, is that the gun-rights advocates are mainly to blame. They block meaningful dialog at every opportunity. They refuse to bend or compromise. They oppose laws like the VA one-gun-a-month law which diminishes the gun flow into the criminal world.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
