Mitch Albom: "Every home a gun, everyone a shooter?"

[muntrv]

MITCH ALBOM
Every home a gun; everyone a shooter?

BY MITCH ALBOM • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • June 29, 2008
So everyone has a gun.

Let's start with that idea. Everyone has a gun. What will this mean? In the minds of some people -- those who think last week's Supreme Court decision protecting gun ownership was wonderful -- it means if you come after me now, I can take you down.

If you try to take what's mine, I can defend myself -- by shooting you dead, if need be.

If I'm scared, I don't need to be, because I have my gun. If you scare me and I want to scare you back, I can, because I have my gun.

The next burglar who tries to rape or kill an innocent party? He gets shot instead.

The next lunatic who tries to shoot up a restaurant? Five people can take him down from five angles.

Everyone has a gun. Everyone can shoot. And as soon as the other handgun laws are dismantled (And great news! Many now can be!), the good guys won't have to cower anymore. The bad guys will have to worry. This evens the playing field. Hallelujah. Finally, the Second Amendment is interpreted correctly.

Our long national nightmare is over.

But on the other hand ...


SEE MORE AT LINK BELOW
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/COL01/806290575/&imw=Y

[TomInTib]

1. What utter bullshit.

All of the Chicken Littles running around crying about how everyone is gonna go all cowboy if guns are made legal (which, by the way, they already are).

Face it, Albom (you dumbass), the Bad Guys already have guns.

I suppose that if the chickenshit caught someone raping his wife, he would plead (probably tearfully) for the guy to pretty please use a condom.

Just because people have firearms, doesn't mean that they are going to go around looking for people to shoot with said firearms.

[StClone]

4. Desultory themes: Iraq, Global Warming

Is this an experiment?

Are you so dead certain that the intended result of more guns will be less crime under Scalia's interpretation which edges the court into an absolute where there used to be a fuzzy area in The Constitution?

If there were fewer guns there would be fewer bullets flying and that is a matter of physics. There were no car accidents before cars and there are fewer accidents with gas going up and people driving less and slower. Maybe it's a poor comparison but I am trying to make the point.

Did all those believers in the benefits of invading Iraq finally realize they were wrong. Wasn't Global Climate Change a few years ago kind of outlandish and unproven? Well I see the new absolute interpretation of the 4th taking time to settle in -- we'll just have to wait and see.

The "New 4th" will be just as hard to undo as Global Climate Change if as I believe it is the most dangerous road to follow.

[TomInTib]

5. You know, I really don't care if guns are legal or not.

I already have mine.

[StClone]

9. Must be a collectable

[TomInTib]

17. I have quite a collection

But no collectibles, I like stuff that works.

[tburnsten]

6. Fewer guns means fewer flying bullets?

really? I was unaware that guns send bullets flying willy nilly whenever they please. I was under the impression that guns are objects that do absolutely nothing until used by a human. I guess I was wrong, you have shown me the error of my ways. Thank you StClone!

[StClone]

11. I understand now

Where the well-regulated militia went.

[tburnsten]

13. "well-regulated"

does not mean that they have extensive oversight. It means prepared and equipped, and ready in case there is a very real need for communities to respond to a threat that government, which was supposed to be as weak as possible, can not handle satisfactorily.

[StClone]

14. One interpretation

We fought the British not our Government or each other when the 4th was written. I see holes in this enough to error on the side of caution. I live dangerously though, I got rid of my weapons before they were hip a few years ago.

[aspergris]

22. It's also irrelevant

The 2nd doesn't say the right rests with the Militia (well regulated or otherwise). It says the right to keep and bear arms is a right of the PEOPLE.

[tburnsten]

7. For those poor endangered souls, a ray of understanding

"June 27, 2008
Supreme Court Says 2nd Amendment Protects 'Individual Right', Law-Abiding Citizens Go On Shooting Sprees
Posted by Harvey at 10:57 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court today ruled against local laws banning handguns by declaring that the Second Amendment guarantees an "individual right" to firearm ownership, and not just a "right to a well-regulated militia". Immediately after the decision, law-abiding gun-owners began using their legal guns to commit violent crimes.

'Legal' gun goes on rampage after gaining control of its law-abiding human host.
"It's like these guns are living objects, possessed by demons," said gun-owner Mike Wazowski. "I was watching the Supreme Court ruling live on C-SPAN, and the next thing I remember, I was on the street, robbing people for crack money. Funny thing is, I don't even know what crack LOOKS like, let alone ever smoked the stuff. It's like the gun was forcing me to do it. These firearms are dangerous and out-of-control. I can't believe the Supreme Court set free these weapons of malevolance incarnate on an unsuspecting nation."

For decades, mayors of large cities claimed that local handgun bans, which kept guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, were the only way to cut down on levels of gun violence which had reached near-epidemic proportions. Now that model citizens are also armed, that epidemic has blossomed into a bloody pandemic.

"I warned you this would happen!" shrieked an outraged Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California). "I've been saying for years that only way to keep our streets safe was to make sure that guns were kept out of the hands of the 99% of the population that obeys the laws. And just as I predicted, all an honest citizen has to do is LOOK at a gun and they will instantly pick it up and start shooting people!"

Since the Supreme Court announcement Thursday, the number of gun-related muggings, robberies, and murders has increased 10,000%, disproving once and for all the National Rifle Association's trite assertion that "guns don't kill people, people kill people". As the victims of America's new gun-violence tsunami would testify (if they were still alive) - it's definitely the guns."

http://www.imao.us/

[Tejas]

18. STOP!

Please stop! My ribs are hurting!

:rofl:

[StClone]

19. Pain in the ribs.

Wasn't perpetrated by E. Gordon Liddy.

[tburnsten]

24. Obviously you haven't seen any guns

since the Heller decision... Mine are trying their hardest to get at me, the 586 even convinced me to do some dry-fire practice last night, but my will is strong! I bet yours will begin their insidious work soon enough, and you will join the ranks of the zombie shootists... Beware Tejas, beware.

[Tejas]

32. There are those voices though

but I can't understand a word of Russian........or Chinese or Polish or.......



For all I know, they could be saying "go shoot down a satellite".


:rofl:

[krispos42]

16. The problem with your premise...

...is that the people that are the bulk of the gun-related crime problem are career criminals that can't legally buy or posses a gun to begin with. This is the population we want to disarm, for that small percentage of people are responsible for the vast majority of crime.

Any law that attemps to reduce the number of privately-owned guns in America will invariably affect the law-abiding first and worst and the law-breaking last and least. Legitimate, legal "flying lead" may drop, but illegal and murderous gunfire won't.

The most powerful engine driving crime is social and economic conditions. By advancing "New Deal"-style ideals that improve social and economic conditions, we will get what we think we can get with gun control, i.e., lower crime and homicide rates, while at the same time improving peoples' lives and strenghening our country.

It's not acceptable to say "Well, people are poor, ignorant, sick, and working 12 hour days with no benefits or protections, but the crime rate is down". That's the Republican point of view.

"The people are comfortable, educated, healthy, and working 8-hour days with union benefits and protecitons, and the crime rate is down!" That's the Democratic point of view.

[aspergris]

21. this guy needs to join the reality based community (tm)

We had the same low-information fear mongering before Fla (and others) passed their CCW laws. And guess what? In state after state that did so - crime (and violent crime) went DOWN.

Fear mongering sucks. No matter who does it.

[bossy22]

2. the usual fear mongering

this decision does not say everyone can have a gun- nor can they carry their gun in any manner in any place.

the decision just said that you cannot have a total prohibition on handguns and working firearms in the home...doesnt say anything about licensing, doesnt say anything about training- just says a prohibition on firearms for self defense in the home is unconstitutional

this is not that far out of an concept- in france any law abiding citizen can apply for a permit and be granted a permit to keep a handgun and 50 rounds of ammunition in their home for self defense. the same goes with israel.

This will not turn us into the wild west, it will simply restate what americans have long held to be a fundemental value- the right to self defense- especially in the home

[tburnsten]

12. Knew a guy whose family mostly lives in Israel

told me a story about his eleven year old cousin in a grocery store. A guy wearing a long coat, in the heat of summer, big fat body, skinny little neck and head, walks into the store, little cousin notices how incongrous he is with the environment and surroundings, along with his nervous and sketchy behavior. His uncle was one of whatever the Israelis call their law enforcment officers, the little man draws his father's pistol (from his duty rig no less) and shoots the man dead, a single shot through the forehead. Turns out the guy was strapped with quite a bit of explosives, and the little guy saved the day with his acute situational awareness. Firearms training for all is not a bad idea.

[iverglas]

26. that's a good one

Speaks such volumes, it does. Thanks!


Oh, oops. There's one thing you probably meant to add to that careful description.

I'll just paraphrase that Cabaret song ...

He didn't look Jewish at all.

[spin]

29. It's called being in condition yellow...

Wearing a long coat in the summer heat is a giveaway that the individual is more than likely concealing a weapon (or in this case explosives).

Many people who carry concealed wear a photographers vest. Without a large camera dangling from their shoulder, it's a dead giveaway, especially in the heat of summer.

Many people wouldn't notice a firearm carried openly on a belt merely because they're so involved in their own thoughts or are busy talking on a cell phone. Shooters refer to this as being in "condition white". The first rule of avoiding problems is to be aware of your surroundings. Shooters often call this being in "condition yellow".

Jews living in Israel are wise to be in condition yellow when they are in public. Fortunately the little guy was on the ball and saved some innocent lives. More fortunately, he was right and made a good decision.

As for the little guy using racial profiling, many Arabs and Jews look similar because they came from the same stock. Of course, Jewish people are a very diverse race because of their history of being dispersed all over the world.

[StClone]

20. It is now a Clear cut Conditional Right

Do you understand a premium is placed on proof to UNDERMINED that RIGHT anywhere at anytime?

I got rid of my guns about ten years ago when there were three incidents in my community where kids got the keys to gun locks and gun cabinets and they or another kid died.

Maybe that's a statistical quirk.

[aspergris]

23. Yes, it is

Considering that more kids die from pool/bathtub accidents than firearms accidents. (realizing that there is no such thing as accidental discharge - only unintentional discharge, but I digress...)

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Indians don't kill people, arrows do. n/t

[katandmoon]

8. I hate guns

[bossy22]

10. you have every right to

[Recursion]

28. I hate cars

[spoony]

15. How, that's a feat. Admitting he doesn't know but still being preachy.

What a pud.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. What about those of us who don't believe in your god?

"But when I read an NRA lobbyist named Chris Cox telling the media that law-abiding Americans had a "God-given right to defend themselves in their homes," I must take exception.

God isn't in on this. God doesn't want us armed to the teeth. God didn't create bullets, gunpowder or triggers. That was our doing.

And so is this ruling. It is men deciding more guns are the answer and wrapping that decision in idealism. God has nothing to do with it."


I agree, god has nothing to do with it. The Right Arm Of The Free World does, it's chambered in 7.62x51mm, and it's ready at a moments notice to defend the lives of my family.

[east texas lib]

27. Roger that!

[spoony]

31. Mitch's god is whatever amazing agent gets his maudlin crap sold :-P

[SlipperySlope]

30. The great object is that every man be armed...

Those are the words of Patrick Henry; "The great object is that every man be armed ... Everyone who is able may have a gun."

[old mark]

33. Switzerland does this, has for decades.

EVERY male in Switzerland is a menber of the reserve army. Their battle equipment, including firearms and ammunition, is stored in their individual homes. They regularly train with and shoot these weapons.
Switzerland was able to maintain neutrality through 2 World Wars and the Cold War using this strategy.
They do not have bolld in the streets, as some of the antis say is an inevitable consequence of widespread knowledge of and access to guns.

For me the only significant point of the atricle was that anti gun males had "little or no knowledge" of guns, meaning that,like most anti gun folks, they have no idea what they are talking about.They simply parrot lies they have been told by other antis.

They love to scream and shout, but they are full of shit.

mark