Gun problem is a First Amendment issue

With the blessing of the founders and the High Court, you have the undisputed, undefeated right to bear-hug all the arms you want.

But Lord knows -- even Charlton Heston's ghost knows -- we need to talk about guns.

Because the biggest threats to the Second Amendment are not the anti-gun, tree-hugging Greenpeace hippies. The biggest threats to responsible gun owners -- and to public safety -- are idiots with guns.

Shots were fired in the air at a carnival near Century Plaza, at Railroad Park on a Sunday afternoon, and twice on the Strip in Tuscaloosa.

Bullets were fired into houses across Birmingham on Feb. 29 and March 20th, on March 26th, March 31st, April 8th and April 10th. Children were sleeping when slugs hit a house on John Bryan Road. Seven more bullets hit an Avenue U apartment. Ten hit a 27th Street home.

Last week, somebody even shot into the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, wounding a Saturn V rocket. If that's not an attack on America, what is?

Guns really don't kill people. Idiots with access to guns kill people. They buy them on the black market, or by deception, and get their firearms training on MTV. They shoot into the air. They fire before they respect bullets.

I asked the NRA, the police and the sheriff for answers. Is there a way, a chance, a hope of teaching gun safety to these idiot owners of illegal guns?

"I don't think they give a rip about gun safety," Jefferson County Chief Deputy Randy Christian said. "We would entertain the thought of even teaching them gun safety if they are brave enough to show up. Doubt we will get any takers."

But why not try it? Prayers and processions, gun buybacks and waiting periods have not solved our problem. Perhaps gun safety training for thugs -- or marksmanship -- is the answer.

Of course, it is never so simple. Because in real life, real tragedy comes when real people -- even those who act like idiots -- wind up on one side or the other of very real bullets.

On Gravine Island, 17-year-old purported burglar Summer Moody was shot in the head by vigilantes who claimed it was meant as a warning shot. In Birmingham, 13-year-old Ja'Quares Walker wielded a gun in a botched robbery, and was shot dead because of it.

The shootings were, the way the facts now appear, legally justifiable. But that doesn't mean the deaths were not tragic. It is tragic each time a gun is pulled and a deadly chain of events set into motion.

We do have a gun problem. But it's not a Second Amendment issue. It's a First Amendment issue.

We need to learn again to talk about guns in realistic, honest ways, without all the knee-jerk political baggage. We need to talk safety, and consequences. We need to discuss ways of limiting gun supplies to criminals without threatening the rights of responsible owners.

1. Dead violent criminals are, AT ANY AGE, the ideal outcome of self defense. They don’t have to be tried. They don’t take up prison beds. And they never, ever, commit another crime.

2. Idiots, fools, criminals, and Nigerian email scammers are not an excuse to suspend the First Amendment, so why are they excuse to suspend the Second?

"Bullets were fired into houses across Birmingham on Feb. 29 and March 20th, on March 26th, March 31st, April 8th and April 10th...."
Criminals did this. These things don't just happen...a criminal is defined as a person who commits an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare or morals or to the interests of the state and that is legally prohibited.

"Idiots with access to guns kill people."
Not idiots...criminals!

"On Gravine Island, 17-year-old purported burglar Summer Moody was shot in the head by vigilantes who claimed it was meant as a warning shot. In Birmingham, 13-year-old Ja'Quares Walker wielded a gun in a botched robbery, and was shot dead because of it."
Amazing...the dead guys are criminals...NOT VICTIMS.

"The shootings were, the way the facts now appear, legally justifiable. "
Amazing how the author terms it above a 'botched robbery' and yet here claims 'the way the facts appear'. Facts are facts and appearances are appearances. Hey author, get a dictionary and learn what words mean. Appearances: outward impressions, indications, or circumstances. Facts: something known to exist or to have happened; reality; truth.

John Archibald sounds as though he might be open to facts and to reassesing his assumptions about reality.

I would bet that Mr. Archibald led the charge against allowing NRA’s Eddie Eagle firarms safety course to be taught in public schools.

When leftists lose a policy argument (can’t make their opponents shut up) they try to sound real reasonable and approach the winners and say let’s dialog about this... This guy almost did it, but he could not help himself in smearing the people who exercise self defense and feelin sorry for the dead criminal “victims.”

How do you keep gang bangers from getting guns and shooting up their neighborhoods? LOCK THEM UP with a life sentence for gang banging. How do you get Mexicans to stop shooting in the air like they do at home? Deport the illegals and close the border. That is as much dialog as the left needs.

John Archibald sounds as though he might be open to facts and to reassesing his assumptions about reality.

Indeed. He may have a lot more free time in which to do so.

16 April:

Today is a dark day at The News. It marks the last day not only for Ginny, but for health writer Anna Velasco. By May veteran political writer Tom Gordon — with more stored memory than an iPad — will be gone. So will young Erin Stock.

It’s not just a News thing, it’s a news thing. They tell us, in fact, that our readership is good and ad revenue is rebounding. But technology and economics have worn on profitability in all news operations. Ours is no exception.

But it hurts. In all, since buyouts were offered in 2008, The News has lost more than 500 years of reporting experience. Decorated reporter Dave Parks — who pretty much discovered “Gulf War Syndrome” — went. State editor Glenn Stephens, who could pilot a newsroom through a storm with an even keel, is gone. Food writer Jo Ellen O’Hara left us, as did outdoors writer Mike Bolton.

We’ve lost 32 people in the newsroom. Twenty were reporters, the real workhorses.

18 April:

-more-

John Archibald is an ass. When a criminal gets dusted it is not a tragedy. It's a cause for celebration.

Because the dirtballs life was ended early, how many more innocent, good Americans were spared the ignominy of being preyed on by said dirtball.

We used to have laws forbidding gun ownership and/or possession by aliens and other groups- notorious for killing each other

This Country used to have laws that made it illegal to sell liquor to Indians because when drunk they turned murderous. Why can't we ban guns to Blacks and Mexicans until they are 45 or so, where according to the FBI criminal stats they start to slow down.

We've been talking, Mr. Archibald. You haven't been listening. I want to believe - I truly do - that a call for gun safety classes for thugs was intended satirically. Because that really is the crux of the matter - they're armed, they're idiots, and they don't care what "requirements" the noble of intention manage to fabricate. Passing laws doesn't help, Mr. Archibald. Thugs don't obey them.

The issue in my view is that the country has entered a state of quasi-warfare between honest people and thugs who have been aided and enabled by liberals who simply see them as solid citizens they haven't talked around yet, as members of an underclass that are simply lashing out against injustice or whatever it is that not possessing other people's wallets is termed these days. Consider this, Mr. Archibald - in a day when one could mail-order a battle rifle, gangs carried knives. What has changed isn't access to firearms. It's something a lot more basic - it's the acceptance of thug violence as socially legitimate. The prospective victims are responding by arming themselves. Ourselves. And we've had gun safety classes, and we do shoot back.

Give it up, Mr. Archibald. You and your ideological cronies managed to start this thing, and hoping that it will all go away if the targets will just die peacefully isn't going to happen. Buy a gun is my advice. You'll need it before I do.

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