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Monday, January 28, 2013

Shooting From the Hip

("Confessions of a Gun Owner")

"Statistically speaking, a gun represents a far greater danger to the its inhabitants than to an intruder. But not every choice we make is data- driven. It comes from the gut". This pronouncement of Mr. Cronin goes to the heart of this debate, and many of the battles that clutter our political landscape.

How can we ever hope to change minds when the facts are irrelevant to the discussion? It is why the NRA pushes to keep funding from government agencies that would study the issue and arrive at inevitable conclusions that those like Mr. Cronin don't want to absorb. It is why so much of our discourse gets sidetracked in hyperbolic nonsense.

The ugly truth is that guns are not the solution but accelerate the deaths in this country. And while Mr. Cronin may swell with pride at his daughter's ability to "rack her weapon", his reaction appears totally disconnected from the possibility of a far more harsh reality.

It is well past time that we stopped dealing from the gut, as one of  Mr. Cronin's fellow Texans did to this nation's long lasting detriment, and started paying closer attention to the numbers.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In todays Times, there are two compelling letters, one from former governor of Alaska, and the other from a gentleman from Albuquerque , writing about the problem. Gov Knowles writes that we "have to live within both our rights and responsibilities to save the lives of innocent victims", and the second writer "rights that will be taken away, including the right to live unafraid, in a country the values the lives of children more that it values firearms"
Well written letters that sum up the problem.