Let's all drop her a note of thanks for this tripe she passes off as jounalism.
LINK
Staff Columnist
Concealed carry makes it too easy to jump the gun
Too bad the concealed-weapons bill that made it through the Minnesota House this week wasn't on the books Monday, when a masked gunman jumped the counter of a St. Paul bank and held a gun to the teller's head.
The dozen customers and employees caught in the takeover could have reached into their breast pockets and purses and unloaded a scrap-heap of hot metal into the robber, like a rapid-fire scene in a Guy Ritchie film. Bullets would ricochet. Blood would spurt. A body (or bodies, since you might have to sacrifice a bystander or two) would lay in a heap. And bad guys would find out this is a law-and-order state, dadgummit.
As it was, the guy got off with an undisclosed amount of money and the shaken teller will get a little trauma counseling. No one was hurt. Dang.
Though law enforcement officers adamantly oppose this bill, it easily passed the House with a 85-46 vote. Supporters congratulated themselves this week with the usual rhetoric about self-defense, freedom, ``equalizers'' and such. ``The crazy people have the guns,'' said Rep. Mike Osskopp, R-Lake City, ``and the purpose of the Boudreau bill is to even the playing field.''
I assume he means that the potential passage of this bill would mean more noncrazy people can have guns -- although you could also make a good case that guns can also increase the incidence of crazy behavior. I don't mean to suggest that guns make people crazy. I just want to suggest that the presence of a gun can turn can an ordinary moment of despair, anger, even boredom, into an act of violence.
With a gun, a sad, lonely kid who gets picked on in school can add to our nation's growing list of school shootings. With a gun, an ugly domestic argument can escalate into a homicide. With a gun, a man with untreated depression can become another rural suicide statistic.
With a gun, even people with a permit to carry one can get a little trigger-happy. Though it may surprise some of you to hear this, I am a graduate of the Gunsite Training Center, an Arizona school that is considered by the carrying cognoscenti to be the Harvard of firearms instruction. A national magazine sent me there for a story a few years ago, and during intensive training with a Colt .45, I came to be reasonably competent firing two rounds, center mass, then finishing off my target with a well-placed shot to the brain pan, a technique instructors referred to, mysteriously, as ``The Mozambique.''
It was great fun.
What was less fun was being in a state where everyone had a weapon. They say an armed society is a polite society, but from what I saw in the Arizona desert, where nearly everyone in the region took advantage of the open carry law, an armed society is also a very jumpy society. In public places, everyone with a holster sat with their backs to the wall. When a waitress dropped a tray of dishes, half the men in the cafe jumped up, their right hands hovering at their hips. Hotel keepers near the gun school were wary renting rooms to students, having lost so many television sets to guests convinced they ``heard someone breaking in.'' In the ``simulated home invasion'' we had to pass for graduation, more than half of my classmates failed because they missed the dummy intruder and accidentally killed the gardener.
Maybe we'll have this to look forward to someday in Minnesota, where our reputation for mild-mannered passive-
aggressiveness will be replaced by wild and woolly aggressive-
aggressiveness. ``Is that a pistol in your pocket?'' we'll be able to wonder, self-defensively, about our neighbors, our co-workers and the strangers we pass on the street, ``or are you just mad to see me?''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laura Billings' column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. She can be reached at lbillings@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5584
my response
Ms. Billings,
America is weary of the spin-doctored attempts to make gun-control palatable. The days of obfuscate, legislate, and confiscate are over.
I am not an extremist. I see both sides of the gun safety issue, and I support legitimate, reasonable efforts to keep firearms away from young children, psychopaths, and criminals. I am also a CHL holder who has never filled a lobby full of innocent bystanders with "hot lead". If I were prone to such activities, It is not likely that I would subject myself to an intrusive background check prior to doing so.
You are mistaken in assuming that CHL's contribute to crime. Oregon has nearly 100,000 CHL holders. We have low crime. In Oregon, as well as nationwide, CHL holders are rarely, if ever, involved in criminal activity.
I am a former correctional officer. As such, I can tell you for certain that criminals fear the random element a CHL holder presents. I have heard it from them time and time again. In addition, the thought of breaking into an occupied private home, or an independently owned (read: possible gun on the premises) business is considered stupid, even for a criminal.
There is a big difference between propaganda and journalism. You seem to be letting your bias prevent you from learning from the facts. I respectfully suggest you re-examine your position.
[Edited by Longshot on 04-12-2001 at 10:10 PM]
LINK
Staff Columnist
Concealed carry makes it too easy to jump the gun
Too bad the concealed-weapons bill that made it through the Minnesota House this week wasn't on the books Monday, when a masked gunman jumped the counter of a St. Paul bank and held a gun to the teller's head.
The dozen customers and employees caught in the takeover could have reached into their breast pockets and purses and unloaded a scrap-heap of hot metal into the robber, like a rapid-fire scene in a Guy Ritchie film. Bullets would ricochet. Blood would spurt. A body (or bodies, since you might have to sacrifice a bystander or two) would lay in a heap. And bad guys would find out this is a law-and-order state, dadgummit.
As it was, the guy got off with an undisclosed amount of money and the shaken teller will get a little trauma counseling. No one was hurt. Dang.
Though law enforcement officers adamantly oppose this bill, it easily passed the House with a 85-46 vote. Supporters congratulated themselves this week with the usual rhetoric about self-defense, freedom, ``equalizers'' and such. ``The crazy people have the guns,'' said Rep. Mike Osskopp, R-Lake City, ``and the purpose of the Boudreau bill is to even the playing field.''
I assume he means that the potential passage of this bill would mean more noncrazy people can have guns -- although you could also make a good case that guns can also increase the incidence of crazy behavior. I don't mean to suggest that guns make people crazy. I just want to suggest that the presence of a gun can turn can an ordinary moment of despair, anger, even boredom, into an act of violence.
With a gun, a sad, lonely kid who gets picked on in school can add to our nation's growing list of school shootings. With a gun, an ugly domestic argument can escalate into a homicide. With a gun, a man with untreated depression can become another rural suicide statistic.
With a gun, even people with a permit to carry one can get a little trigger-happy. Though it may surprise some of you to hear this, I am a graduate of the Gunsite Training Center, an Arizona school that is considered by the carrying cognoscenti to be the Harvard of firearms instruction. A national magazine sent me there for a story a few years ago, and during intensive training with a Colt .45, I came to be reasonably competent firing two rounds, center mass, then finishing off my target with a well-placed shot to the brain pan, a technique instructors referred to, mysteriously, as ``The Mozambique.''
It was great fun.
What was less fun was being in a state where everyone had a weapon. They say an armed society is a polite society, but from what I saw in the Arizona desert, where nearly everyone in the region took advantage of the open carry law, an armed society is also a very jumpy society. In public places, everyone with a holster sat with their backs to the wall. When a waitress dropped a tray of dishes, half the men in the cafe jumped up, their right hands hovering at their hips. Hotel keepers near the gun school were wary renting rooms to students, having lost so many television sets to guests convinced they ``heard someone breaking in.'' In the ``simulated home invasion'' we had to pass for graduation, more than half of my classmates failed because they missed the dummy intruder and accidentally killed the gardener.
Maybe we'll have this to look forward to someday in Minnesota, where our reputation for mild-mannered passive-
aggressiveness will be replaced by wild and woolly aggressive-
aggressiveness. ``Is that a pistol in your pocket?'' we'll be able to wonder, self-defensively, about our neighbors, our co-workers and the strangers we pass on the street, ``or are you just mad to see me?''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laura Billings' column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. She can be reached at lbillings@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5584
my response
Ms. Billings,
America is weary of the spin-doctored attempts to make gun-control palatable. The days of obfuscate, legislate, and confiscate are over.
I am not an extremist. I see both sides of the gun safety issue, and I support legitimate, reasonable efforts to keep firearms away from young children, psychopaths, and criminals. I am also a CHL holder who has never filled a lobby full of innocent bystanders with "hot lead". If I were prone to such activities, It is not likely that I would subject myself to an intrusive background check prior to doing so.
You are mistaken in assuming that CHL's contribute to crime. Oregon has nearly 100,000 CHL holders. We have low crime. In Oregon, as well as nationwide, CHL holders are rarely, if ever, involved in criminal activity.
I am a former correctional officer. As such, I can tell you for certain that criminals fear the random element a CHL holder presents. I have heard it from them time and time again. In addition, the thought of breaking into an occupied private home, or an independently owned (read: possible gun on the premises) business is considered stupid, even for a criminal.
There is a big difference between propaganda and journalism. You seem to be letting your bias prevent you from learning from the facts. I respectfully suggest you re-examine your position.
[Edited by Longshot on 04-12-2001 at 10:10 PM]