The Right Of The People To Wait Until The Police Show Up Shall Not Be Abridged

Rod Watson's argument against gun ownership is weaker than I'd have expected.

And there’s the rub. Sure, I could be trusted to walk around armed. And maybe you. But what about that guy down the block?

What about the guy who regularly risks his life and yours with a 3,000- pound weapon he drives right on your bumper before hopping lanes? Do you trust him with a gun?

Or what about the Little League parents who beat up coaches and team managers — and even opposing kids — when Junior doesn’t get enough playing time or gets tackled too roughly? Would you trust them with a gun?

“We can’t just have everyone running around armed to the teeth, ready to do whatever they think they need to do,” said Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson.

We'll leave the question of Mr. Watson's trustworthiness with a firearm for another post, but he is right that there are a lot of unstable and quick-to-anger people that we'd prefer not to own guns.   The problem is that those people probably already do and if not, they can come into Buffalo tonight and pick one up on any of dozens of street corners without so much as getting out of the car.

Rod Watson and those who think like him would prefer that we law-abiding, non-violent types agree to serve as some sort of moral example and give up our right to own guns.  But growing numbers of Americans are realizing what a foolish compact that would be and are demanding instead their moral right to defend themselves when someone threatens to harm or kill them.

Since I've lived on the West Side I've heard gunfire erupt from a car on the corner next to my house, I've had a 15 year old boy pull a handgun out of his pocket just to "impress" me and I've had to detour over one block coming home late one night when I saw some lunatic weaving down the middle of the street waving a pistol over his head.   And now Rod Watson [and the police commissioner evidently] would deny me the legal ability to have a gun because they're not sure if I can be trusted?

Please.