Interesting editorial in an interesting-looking online news source I hadn't seen before. Joseph Sobran is one of the editorialists they feature, and they ran this, so that makes www.uexpress.com worth investigating further.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Maggie Gallagher
MOMS FOR GUNS
This week I attended a conference of the National Parenting Association, which specializes in work-family issues (more on that in another column). This evening, truly distinguished civil and scholarly leaders gathered to discuss the implications of a new NPA poll (available online at www.parentsunite.org) which suggests that America's 63 million parents (58 percent of whom are either independent or "weak" Democrats or Republicans) have the potential to swing elections. What is on most parents' minds? Violence, it seems, in this post-Columbine era: The portion of parents who list it as a major worry jumped from 30 percent in 1996 to 40 percent today.
In particular, more than eight in 10 American parents in this poll supported various gun control measures, from trigger locks to licensing and registration of all guns.
Boy, did I feel like the odd mom out. Me? I wish I had a gun. As a mom, I feel guilty about the fact that my sons may grow up entirely gun-free. I don't know why I feel so strongly. I didn't have guns as a kid, and neither did my brother or my dad (except for the Navy stint). Maybe it is one too many Heinlein novels, or maybe it's the research that shows armed citizens play a key role in saving their fellow citizens from Columbinesque mass attacks, but I have this weirdly politically incorrect, deeply personal sense of civic responsibility: If there's a madman or a bad man threatening my kids or my neighborhood, I feel like I ought to be in a position to do something a little more effective than screaming, fainting, calling for smelling salts or summoning the police.
The thought of gun ownership occurred to me again recently when at 7 o'clock on a Saturday morning, I was awakened by the grating sound of an incredibly loud lawn mower, a suburban hazard. "Who cuts the grass at this hour!" I groused, dragging myself into the garden for a clarifying cup of coffee. A few minutes later, as the haze of sleep lifted, it dawned on me that this whirring noise was no mower. This was a police helicopter. Circling and circling in a tight one-block radius. Over my head.
Hmmm, maybe hanging out in the garden wasn't such a good idea. Turned out the police had cornered a man with a gun at the local 7-Eleven. It was a minor incident, so minor it failed to make the morning papers. But it certainly made me wish I had a shotgun locked up in the attic, too.
True, guns can cause terrible accidents if not properly cared for, but so can chain saws -- and I have one of those in the attic.
Maybe maternal guilt is why I react so negatively to politicians like Sen. Charles Schumer, who according to USA Today actually threatened to revoke tax breaks for any landlord with the nerve to rent space to the NRA for a new sports cafe and video sports shooting arcade, a perfectly legal enterprise.
"Americans from Wyoming and Kansas and Maine will come to the city, take in a show, and stop by the NRA Sports store for buffalo burgers and virtual reality skeet shooting," said NRA president Wayne LaPierre.
The way NRA opponent Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, reacted, you'd think he'd suggested a neo-Nazi training camp. "Youth recruitment," he called it darkly. "They think they can use this as a way to bring kids to guns."
Excuse me, Josh, but have you been to some of the video arcades on Times Square lately? I have. After the blood-spurting body blasts and gunning-down-girl games now regnant, NRA video games inviting families to target imaginary clay pigeons would be positively wholesome.
(Readers may reach Maggie Gallagher at GallagherIAV@Yahoo.com.)
COPYRIGHT 2000 MAGGIE GALLAGHER
[/quote]
[This message has been edited by JimR (edited June 14, 2000).]
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Maggie Gallagher
MOMS FOR GUNS
This week I attended a conference of the National Parenting Association, which specializes in work-family issues (more on that in another column). This evening, truly distinguished civil and scholarly leaders gathered to discuss the implications of a new NPA poll (available online at www.parentsunite.org) which suggests that America's 63 million parents (58 percent of whom are either independent or "weak" Democrats or Republicans) have the potential to swing elections. What is on most parents' minds? Violence, it seems, in this post-Columbine era: The portion of parents who list it as a major worry jumped from 30 percent in 1996 to 40 percent today.
In particular, more than eight in 10 American parents in this poll supported various gun control measures, from trigger locks to licensing and registration of all guns.
Boy, did I feel like the odd mom out. Me? I wish I had a gun. As a mom, I feel guilty about the fact that my sons may grow up entirely gun-free. I don't know why I feel so strongly. I didn't have guns as a kid, and neither did my brother or my dad (except for the Navy stint). Maybe it is one too many Heinlein novels, or maybe it's the research that shows armed citizens play a key role in saving their fellow citizens from Columbinesque mass attacks, but I have this weirdly politically incorrect, deeply personal sense of civic responsibility: If there's a madman or a bad man threatening my kids or my neighborhood, I feel like I ought to be in a position to do something a little more effective than screaming, fainting, calling for smelling salts or summoning the police.
The thought of gun ownership occurred to me again recently when at 7 o'clock on a Saturday morning, I was awakened by the grating sound of an incredibly loud lawn mower, a suburban hazard. "Who cuts the grass at this hour!" I groused, dragging myself into the garden for a clarifying cup of coffee. A few minutes later, as the haze of sleep lifted, it dawned on me that this whirring noise was no mower. This was a police helicopter. Circling and circling in a tight one-block radius. Over my head.
Hmmm, maybe hanging out in the garden wasn't such a good idea. Turned out the police had cornered a man with a gun at the local 7-Eleven. It was a minor incident, so minor it failed to make the morning papers. But it certainly made me wish I had a shotgun locked up in the attic, too.
True, guns can cause terrible accidents if not properly cared for, but so can chain saws -- and I have one of those in the attic.
Maybe maternal guilt is why I react so negatively to politicians like Sen. Charles Schumer, who according to USA Today actually threatened to revoke tax breaks for any landlord with the nerve to rent space to the NRA for a new sports cafe and video sports shooting arcade, a perfectly legal enterprise.
"Americans from Wyoming and Kansas and Maine will come to the city, take in a show, and stop by the NRA Sports store for buffalo burgers and virtual reality skeet shooting," said NRA president Wayne LaPierre.
The way NRA opponent Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, reacted, you'd think he'd suggested a neo-Nazi training camp. "Youth recruitment," he called it darkly. "They think they can use this as a way to bring kids to guns."
Excuse me, Josh, but have you been to some of the video arcades on Times Square lately? I have. After the blood-spurting body blasts and gunning-down-girl games now regnant, NRA video games inviting families to target imaginary clay pigeons would be positively wholesome.
(Readers may reach Maggie Gallagher at GallagherIAV@Yahoo.com.)
COPYRIGHT 2000 MAGGIE GALLAGHER
[/quote]
[This message has been edited by JimR (edited June 14, 2000).]
