Guns Don't Kill People, People Shooting Guns Kill People

The governor of Virginia closed the loophole in their gun law the other day.  It used to be if you were deemed a nutsoid, you had to be involuntarily committed to an institution before they put you on the DO NOT SELL GUNS TO THIS PERSON list. Now they can put you on the list just for being ordered to get outpatient therapy. Maybe they should do it for people who watch Dr. Phil, too. 

I don't think that's enough. Mainly because I don't think that the mentally ill are as dangerous as some of our other fine citizens. Drunks, for instance. And the most dangerous drunks with guns are alcoholic dads. The soused father who lived two doors down from me once shot his .357 magnum through the ceiling of his living room into his son's bedroom. Luckily the kid was at camp. He was a school principal who was certified as a full contact wacko shortly after that. His wife divorced him. And he works in a homeless shelter now. 

So I would like to expand the list to include anyone arrested for a DUI. Yep. Put ALL of them on the DO NOT SELL GUNS TO THIS COMPLETELY WASTED PERSON list.

Drunks should also be tattooed with a target on their forehead that glows in the dark when they get shitfaced and think about taking hostages. So the cops have something to aim at. But that's just my opinion.

Anyone arrested for domestic violence -- put 'em on the NO WAY YOU"RE GETTING A GUN list, too. They're usually drunk anyway.

This will never happen of course. The NRA is there for all the David Hasselhoffs of the world. 

I remember doing some pro bono ads for a gun control group back in the eighties. I was working at a huge ad agency at the time, and a bunch of us were doing ads for the group after work. The NRA got wind of what we were doing and threatened to tell the agency's clients. My feeling was that the clients were probably in favor of gun control, but the agency told us to stop working on gun control. 

Around that time the Chicago Sun Times took matters into their own hands and ran an edition of the paper that had nothing in it but stories about handgun deaths. Page after page after page.

There are a number of towns around here that have voted themselves as nuclear free and gun free zones.

A few years ago my village had a meeting and invited people to discuss the gun control issue. I caught a glimpse ofthe meeting room filled with people who showed up to defend their second amendment rights. 

I have never seen so many balding, beer bellied, ruddy faced keepers of the faith in my life.  And I have never seen them since, which makes me wonder if they were trucked in for the occasion.  Considering that my town is mostly white collar and not blue collar, it's a real possibility.  I didn't stay because I was young enough to be intimidated by the NRA. And I had to carpool my kids somewhere.

But there will be a next time. Maybe I'll fight against permitting concealed weapons since that's the latest shoot to kill idea that's been floating around. I've already decided I have no need to return to Texas any time soon, since it's legal to carry weapons hidden in your drawers down there. You can conceal your gun there too.