Anti-Guns & Ammo

My girlfriend Danielle training — because it's smart, not because it's the law.

My girlfriend Danielle training — because it’s smart, not because it’s a law.

Guns & Ammo magazine editor Dick Metcalf penned an editorial in the December issue saying that the Second Amendment, like all constitutional rights, needs to be regulated, and that regulation doesn’t equal infringement.

Yes it does Dick, when that “regulation” is up to a legislature such as we have now, and worse ones we’re likely to have in the future. Dick may have been talking about requiring training and preparation for those who want to ‘keep and bear arms.’ But if he thinks that far more onerous regulations won’t sneak through that open door — such as exorbitant ownership fees and rationed permits that only the rich and well connected can afford and get — he’s short-sighted and a fool.

So now Dick is out of job. And the more senior editor who approved Dick’s piece, Jim Bequette, is asking for forgiveness. But in this case, mea culpa translates into “please keep buying our magazine” and “please don’t cancel your advertising.”

Jim, the truly sorry fall on their swords, or at least resign. All others ask for forgiveness. It’s why Weiner and Spitzer still run for office. And why the president can blithely lie about keeping your health care plan (mine’s been cancelled, by the way) and just as casually now disavow those former, oft-recorded statements. It’s because they don’t regret anything they’ve said or done. Only that they got caught or called on it. Same with you, Jim. You’re just concerned about your own future and the publication’s bottom line, not about the future of the Second Amendment.

[UPDATE: Jim Bequette has also resigned. Somehow, I think he and Dick Metcalf will be back when the smoke clears. We’ll see if the gun crowd has a longer memory than the average constituent.]

The Brady Campaign and other anti-gun organizations like Dick’s editorial and G&A for publishing it. They applaud the introduction of some ‘common sense’ in the debate, and chatter amongst themselves why there isn’t more of it in the pro-gun world.

There’s plenty of common sense — and restraint, and conscientiousness — among America’s legal gun owners. What they really mean is, why won’t we just give up our silly fascination with guns? It’s because we don’t feel something we may need someday to defend our loved ones or ourselves is silly. Soy lattes are silly. Listening to Al Gore (as he warms the globe with the exhaust from his private jet) is silly. But not guns. And we can’t give an inch when faced with anti-gun forces that will use even a bombing in Boston (a bomb, not a gun, mind you) to call for more gun control. There is no ‘common sense’ in the irrational fear, distorted facts, utter denial of statistics, and emotional blather that make up every anti-gun argument I’ve ever heard.

Would I like to see better-trained gun-owners and users? Sure. Would I like to see it a legal requirement? No. No, because of what would come next. Would I prefer that no one with a mental disorder be allowed to own a gun? Absolutely. But that law already exists. So regulation isn’t the problem. Obviously, enforcement is.

Just think of the lives that would’ve been saved if it had been for these individuals:

James Egan Holmes (Aurora)— seeing a psychiatrist

Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech)— known mental disorders since childhood

Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook)— mother intended to have him institutionalized

Nidal Hassan (Ft. Hood)— paranoid delusions

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (Columbine)— a clinical psychopath, and a depressive

And then there are the gangs. When the Center for Disease Control says gang homicides account for 80% of gun murders, one has to wonder why anti-gun groups aren’t lobbying hard for mandatory life sentences for gang members caught with a gun. Now that would be some effective gun control.

The trouble with common sense is that it means dealing in real problems and real solutions. So I will be the first to credit the anti-gun groups with having some common sense when they stop worrying about my guns, or those of the average American. We may be the easier target, but we’re not the right one — if controlling gun violence is their real objective.