Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

Monday, January 7, 2013

Logical end

Mr. Pitts wants us to use "logic" to deal with violent people:

NRA puts one nation under the gun

lpitts@MiamiHerald.com

Everybody’s got a pistol. This must really please the NRA. – from Gun by Gil Scott-Heron

So maybe the NRA is about to get its wish.
Here we are, a little over three weeks after the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., a little over two weeks after the National Rifle Association said there should henceforth be armed guards at every school, and at least one school system, Marlboro Township in New Jersey, is taking its advice. Under a pilot program in partnership with local police, students who returned to school last week found their campuses patrolled by armed officers.

But here’s the thing. If this is truly a good idea — “The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre in a news conference — then why stop there? After all, it is not just our schools that are being shot up. So let us follow this advice to its logical end.
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He goes on to give us some good examples of how "the NRA's" reasoning will affect America:
Two people were killed and one injured on Dec. 11 by a gunman who started shooting at a shopping mall near Portland. So we should have armed guards at all our shopping malls.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/05/3168031/nra-puts-one-nation-under-the.html#storylink=cpy
Conveniently missing - or ignoring - the fact that a concealed pistol carried by a bystander stopped the shooting, without firing a shot. The mere presence of the armed shopper caused the shooter to fire one last round - into himself. If that person had not been armed, how many would have died before the second responders - police - arrived with their "acceptable" guns?
Two people were killed and two others injured Nov. 6 when an employee started shooting inside a chicken processing plant in Fresno. So we should have armed guards at all our chicken processing plants.

Read
The presence of just one armed employee might have prevented this one, also. I'll wager that the plant was a "no weapons" area as most corporations are.

Why do otherwise intelligent people have to resort to this sort of hyperbole when presented with the idea that the presence of armed citizens just might have a salutary effect on the outcomes of violent incidents that cannot be predicted or prevented by any combination of laws?

I'll give you some corresponding logic.  From Wikipedia:
The Our Lady of the Angels School Fire broke out shortly before classes were to be dismissed on December 1, 1958, at the foot of a stairway in the Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois. The elementary school was operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. A total of 92 pupils and 3 nuns lost their lives when smoke, heat, and fire cut off their normal means of escape through corridors and stairways. Many more were injured when they jumped from second-floor windows (which were as high as a third floor would be on level ground).
Sarcasm on:
So, we should force all schools to have modern sprinkler systems and means of escape in all classrooms above the first floor, and force all the teachers and students to learn how to react to a fire and use fire extinguishers.
 Stupid, isn't it?

The NRA has never insisted that "all" be armed "all the time", or that they carry any particular type of firearm. The NRA only suggests that the presence of the proper safety equipment, wielded by properly trained individuals, could just possibly prevent some deaths and injuries the next time someone decides to exit his life spectacularly, with a lot of company.

Shame on you, Mr. Pitts.
more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/05/3168031/nra-puts-one-nation-under-the.html#storylink=cpy

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