(April 22, 2014)
I often focus on the dangers of reckless people with guns, rather than criminals with guns, for two reasons. First, reckless people seem very plentiful. Second, they are invariably ignored in gun-rights rhetoric. The gun-rights movement advances a Manichean vision of criminals and "law-abiding citizens," with the latter always and everywhere in need of heavy firepower to defeat the former.
National Rifle Association Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre's rhetoric about criminals -- "so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons" -- is basically pornographic at its peaks. But LaPierre is silent about the legion of gun-toting clods, bumblers, stoners, wife-beaters, fools and drunks who kill, or injure, Americans every day. (Once in possession of a gun, you don't need to be actively stupid to produce tragedy; you can be passively stupid.)
A dialogue between a bloombergview.com commentator (By Francis Wilkinson and John Pierce, co-founder of OpenCarry.org)
A surprisingly 'balanced' discussion. Since Wilkerson, the author (and an apparent Bloomberg supporter) seems to have presented both sides of the conversation, I'm pleasantly surprised that he has resisted the temptation to bowdlerize the exchange.
It's not that long. Go, read the whole thing.
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