("The Republican Fear of Facts on Guns")
"The Carrying of Firearms is Strictly Prohibited". That sign was posted in 1879 in Dodge City. In Wichita, Kansas in 1873 there were notices to "Leave Your Revolvers At Police Headquarters and Get a Check." (Information from a 2011 article in Huffington Post by Adam Winkler, author of "Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.")
Even in the Wild West there was sensible gun legislation. Yet now, almost 150 years removed from that time, we have an epidemic of unchecked gun violence. Almost 100 dead each day and enough guns in circulation to arm every man woman and child in this nation.
We have witnessed the devastation in our classrooms, in our churches, in our theaters. We have been counseled in fear and taught that we somehow are the "well regulated militia" contemplated by the Second Amendment. We have refused to investigate, refused to understand where our obsession has taken us.
And the question no one seems to be asking is whether it is too late. How do 300 million guns not equate to a perpetual disaster, no matter what regulation we may enact around the fringes of this problem? It is well and good to challenge Congress to authorize a study and highlight the misconceptions but then what?
There is no more gunfight at the OK Corral, no more Wyatt Earp to clean up our town. This is a nation that has long since spiraled out of control and until we post a sign "No Guns Allowed" throughout our land, we are doomed to perpetuate our daily ritual of counting our dead. If we are worried about threats to our country's well being, we need look no further than in our own homes.
"The Carrying of Firearms is Strictly Prohibited". That sign was posted in 1879 in Dodge City. In Wichita, Kansas in 1873 there were notices to "Leave Your Revolvers At Police Headquarters and Get a Check." (Information from a 2011 article in Huffington Post by Adam Winkler, author of "Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.")
Even in the Wild West there was sensible gun legislation. Yet now, almost 150 years removed from that time, we have an epidemic of unchecked gun violence. Almost 100 dead each day and enough guns in circulation to arm every man woman and child in this nation.
We have witnessed the devastation in our classrooms, in our churches, in our theaters. We have been counseled in fear and taught that we somehow are the "well regulated militia" contemplated by the Second Amendment. We have refused to investigate, refused to understand where our obsession has taken us.
And the question no one seems to be asking is whether it is too late. How do 300 million guns not equate to a perpetual disaster, no matter what regulation we may enact around the fringes of this problem? It is well and good to challenge Congress to authorize a study and highlight the misconceptions but then what?
There is no more gunfight at the OK Corral, no more Wyatt Earp to clean up our town. This is a nation that has long since spiraled out of control and until we post a sign "No Guns Allowed" throughout our land, we are doomed to perpetuate our daily ritual of counting our dead. If we are worried about threats to our country's well being, we need look no further than in our own homes.
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