Monday, January 18, 2010

Lawful Gun Owners Turned Bad

GoErie.com published an editorial by Pat Howard, which I found very interesting.

Jayson Sack had the bad luck to go roll up his car windows -- sprinkling rain was forcing his family's Saturday evening picnic inside -- as a Saturn sedan came rolling across East 20th Street. A witness recalled Sack yelling at the driver to slow down.

The bad luck was that the Saturn was driven by a 22-year-old cop wannabe with an attitude, a criminal justice degree and a .357 Magnum tucked in his pants. Trouble waiting to happen, in other words.

Atkin got out of the car, pointed that pistol and snuffed the life of a 30-year-old father of two who loved sports and hot cars. A life that could have continued on if only Atkin had done the same.

Reports like this take on a greater significance when told by gun owners. For one thing, this shows that not all gun owners are of the passionate variety who blindly defend guns at every opportunity.

I'm a gun owner myself, and I harbor mixed feelings about the limits of gun rights and a general skepticism about gun control. But if I have a soft spot for anti-gun arguments, it has something to do with a young guy driving off to visit his mom on a spring evening with a large-caliber handgun stuffed in his shorts.

Joel Atkin was carrying that pistol legally, right up until he used it to murder a man in the street for no reason. That's at the heart of the what-ifs in this case.

How many gun owners do you think "have a soft spot for anti-gun arguments?" How common do you think that is?

Mr. Howard mentioned that the problem is when anger and guns get together. I suppose he's talking about a certain type of anger, the kind that becomes uncontrollable. How many people suffer from that, do you think? Would the percentage be the same for gun owners?

In my previous attempt to answer that I placed the level at 1%, which I should add was a low ball conservative figure. Nationwide it's believed to be much higher. They call it IED, Intermittent Explosive Disorder.

What's your opinion? Is something wrong when people have to be so fearful of confrontation that they're reluctant to say something when offended lest they get shot for their trouble? Is this an undesirable side effect of the gun movement? What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

2 comments:

  1. Sorry, but I think your original figure of at least 10-30% is correct for how many people shouldn't own guns.

    In fact, part of the registration process should be a background check to see if the person is adverse to using the gun. In other words, the only people who should have guns should be the people willing to act responsibly with them.

    NotJadeGold

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  2. NotJadeGold said, "Sorry, but I think your original figure of at least 10-30% is correct for how many people shouldn't own guns."

    Amen, brother.

    ReplyDelete