Editor’s note: With fewer real football stories taking place, we are entertaining ourselves with commentary on other issues involving the state. We’ll try to append a note at the top of each in case you’d rather just skip the stuff that isn’t football.
A few weeks ago there was a heated discussion on the Paul Finebaum radio show regarding gun control. The discussion was in the wake of the Va. Tech murders, and a noted sports writer John Feinstein attacked the second amendment.
And in today’s Birmingham News, you’ll find evidence why gun control is a horrible idea. The News story explains how a “Good Samaritan” with a handgun helped police catch the Wachovia bank branch murderer (alleged murderer).
Gun control is a horrible idea because it ignores human nature.
Human’s behave in violent ways, and often only respond to other threats of violence. Just look at the Wachovia robbery: “He knows he’s fixin’ to get shot,” Chappell said of Merriweather. “And he’s not crazy. A crazy man don’t have sense enough to be scared. And he was scared.”
And that is the basis of deterrence. Even bad people don’t want to die, and if they know there are consequences for their actions, they will think twice.
All gun control does is make it easier for bad people to kill innocents. Even with alert police nearby, they were not able to prevent the killings. And thanks to the alert reaction of a citizen with a gun, the murderer was captured—something that might not have happened without our citizen-hero. That’s why we need guns. The police can only respond to crime—it is rare they can truly protect the innocent.
