We can agree to disagree. But what about my inner feelings?!?

Judging from the front page of today's Inquirer, the most important issue Philadelphia faces is the need for gun control. Yes, in a quadruple-authored article, Police Commissioner Johnson is quoted today as blaming the "availability" of guns for the fact that young thugs shot at each other last night, spraying a city bus with bullets and wounding the driver and a passenger:

Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson called the shootings a disgrace. He and Grace repeated their calls for stricter gun-control legislation.

"The availability of weapons out there is out of hand," Johnson said. "I don't know how people in the community can tolerate arming these thugs."

Availability? I'd blame the availability of criminals who break the existing laws against gun possession by them. (Repeat offenders commit 80% of the shootings.) It is they who arm themselves, which is a crime. If that is being tolerated, it reflects poorly on law enforcement, not on the fact that guns are legally available to law-abiding citizens. By misusing the word "availability," Johnson implicitly conflates criminals and armed law abiding citizens. Not that this is new; Johnson is on record as calling concealed carry permit holders a threat, because they "outnumber" police officers.

But there's not much I can say about gun control that I haven't already said. There's no more debating people who think guns are immoral than there is debating people who think gays are immoral. The best that can be hoped for in moral debates is that an old-fashioned thing we call "civility" might allow both sides to "agree to disagree." And it's easy for me to agree to disagree, but the problem is what to do if the "debate" ever reaches "give us your guns or go to jail!" At that point it's no longer merely an intractable debate, so I worry long term....

Because this is so hopeless, I often wish I could take a break from the gun control debate.

Surely I can find a better topic, one which won't bore the readers to tears.

[Brief break, during which many tears flow.]

But this post must go on, even though my eyes are still wet from crying! Let me explain.

As it happens, I get email, and on a variety of subjects. While I don't get too many emails about celebrities, this morning I did, along with a link to a highly emotional YouTube video with one of the most poignant, tearful messages I have ever seen.

The title is "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" and it is a gem.



Wow. It's an uncanny and downright eerie coincidence, but that YouTuber has captured the exact, precise essence of how the Inquirer makes my inner child feel about gun control!

Obviously not anticipating how deeply the YouTuber's angst would resonate with my feelings on the gun issue, the email which sent me the link made a gratuitous (and wholly unnecessary IMO) insinuation about the YouTuber's appearance:

"There's talk that it's a guy.....???"
I'm sorry, but with all due respect to my loyal reader, this blog is simply not rumor central. I cannot explore every possible unsupported allegation and conspiracy theory that crosses my path. Merely mentioning Vince Foster and Ron Brown gets me into trouble with longtime readers, so I'm not about to speculate on the gender of a total stranger. Especially when he or she has unknowingly captured my inner feelings about gun control.

The video has left me deeply moved. I feel the pain and the angst, and I'm taking the message to heart.

And I hereby solemnly pledge that I will leave Britney alone.

(If only the Inquirer make the same pledge about my guns....)

posted by Eric on 09.14.07 at 08:53 AM





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