Opinionator: More on Guns, With Readers

It's happened again. I'm impressed by my readers.

Is this base flattery?

In spite of our ailing educational system, which allows our students to rank in discouraging positions like 13th, 24th, 37th or whatever against the world in little things like math, science, engineering, etc., I keep seeing, right here, evidence that lots and lots of people have not dumbed down.

Or if they have, they must have been spectacularly smart and literate before.

I base this on the fact of so many splendid, thoughtful e-mails to this (and other) columns and articles. There's nothing I want to do less than write on the subject of guns again. But the fact that "Back When I Was Packing" drew such a large number and sterling quality of e-mails changed my mind. I decided that a nice person wouldn't ignore so many concerned readers.

Why do you suppose so many people in supposedly post-literate America — despite how many of our language and brain skills have been rubbed dull by over-exposure to computer games and reality shows and iPods and John McCain running-mates — can still just plain write well.

Here's an example of clean writing that teachers wish they could easily teach; from Terry of Nevada.

I find the confiscatory argument strange. It's usually put forward by folks who fear that their government will take their rights away and, lacking guns, they will have no defense against that.

Oddly these same people often advocate for a strong military. Do these people seriously believe that some sort of people's militia will be any match for the military they've helped to create, if the military were under the control of some despot? A few guys standing around with Bushmasters are going to defeat, say, the guys who took out Bin Laden?

Yes, Terry, it would take extremely skillful Bushmaster-wielders to hold out for long against that same evil government's jet bombers, rocket grenades, tear gas, off-shore gunships, heavy-duty cannons and napalm. Not to mention drones.

And, of course, its well-trained militia.

We're told that succeeding in making those military-style super guns with their massacre-a-whole-crowd magazines no longer readily available to our lunatics, or at least the lunatics who don't already own them, is an admirable goal.

But apparently it would be but a minor step, owing to the fact that the more lowly handgun is still the real villain. Far and way the weapon of choice in our countless killings. We're told those he-man big-boy guns account for but 1 per cent of our scandalous death rate. And not even all of our mass killers used them.

The thought hit me, after the longest time, that all the mass shooters have been men. Some will ask why that should surprise anyone.

I e-mailed the thought to Don Imus on the air and he asked his then–guests, two women, if they'd heard or read of female mass killers. They reached back and came up with the woman who drowned all her kids, and then farther back to Fall River's famous citizen and skilled rap-beater, Lizzie Borden. They're women, for sure and their murders were at least kept in the family, but they weren't multiple shooters.

There have been, of course, numerous one-offs by women, mainly against erring husbands and lovers.

Ah, but we spoke too soon. Don't miss this week's New Yorker for the chilling exception ("A Loaded Gun," by Patrick Radden Keefe).

Someone pointed out that the N.R.A. has more than one thing in mind when it diabolically proposes an armed guard in every school. As is well known, the organization — still humorously claiming to be about gun safety — and gun manufacturers are joined at the waist as securely as Chang and Eng, the famous Siamese twins. If only 100,000 schools subscribed to the plan, that would be … let's see now … how many gun sales?

Here's a grim little parlor game. Ask someone how many United States shootings they think there have been since Newtown. I got answers ranging from not having heard of any to guessing probably a dozen or so.

Wanna play? Before you make a bet, here is but a handful of Googlables that might help.

"Over 1600 Hundred Gun-Related Deaths Since Newtown"

"3 School Shootings Since Newtown"

"Shootings killed 18 people in US per day since Sandy Hook, study shows"

And, of course, this week's tragedy in Los Angeles.

So what is the melancholy conclusion to be drawn from all this?

Doesn't it appear to be that the best thing you and I, as Americans, can do as protection against getting shot at any moment is to, without delay, move to any other country on the planet? So it would seem.

Is it too dramatic to ask what rough beast is gnawing at the soul of America?

---

Let us close with something in a lighter vein.

When I was a kid in Nebraska, a cantankerous farmer, known for plinking with his '22 at passing cars in which he perceived enemies, ingeniously rigged up a shotgun in his house, trained on the inside of his front door so as to widely distribute any intruder.

It seems he was a touch forgetful…

I'm sure my brighter students can finish this story.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Opinionator: More on Guns, With Readers

Dengan url

http://opinimasyarakota.blogspot.com/2013/02/opinionator-more-on-guns-with-readers.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Opinionator: More on Guns, With Readers

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Opinionator: More on Guns, With Readers

sebagai sumbernya