Shortly after the mass murder at the movie theater in Colorado, I was waiting for a plane at a tiny airport in North Dakota, listening to a group of oil rig workers discuss how many lives would have been saved if only the other theater patrons had been armed. “They could have nipped it in the bud,” one man told another confidently. ...Gail Collins, NYT
Oh, I know. Guns are supposed to make you safer. But that depends on how good a shot the gun owner is.
Yesterday, a bunch of people in front of the Empire State Building were shot -- "some or all by the police." By the NYPD.
Nine passers-by were also wounded, and it seems almost certain that some or all were accidentally hit by the police. This isn’t surprising; it’s only in movies that people are good shots during a violent encounter. In 2008, Al Baker reported in The Times that the accuracy rate for New York City officers firing in the line of duty was 34 percent. ...Gail Collins
Now, at this point, thousands of offended, defensive, politicized gun owners try to convince us that "most" gun owners would do a lot better. Evidently not when it's a really tense situation. Sure.
And when the guns used are assault weapons? Did you know that the only thing that making an assault weapon illegal is if you intend to use it on a migrating bird?
Under federal law, you only can use guns with a maximum three-bullet capacity if you’re hunting migratory birds. Even the most completely mindless faction in the National Rifle Association appears willing to give that a pass. ...
... So the guy driving toward the Sikh temple with the high-capacity magazine on his gun was legal until he started shooting. The guy sitting in the duck blind, no. Mull that one over the weekend. ...Gail Collins
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