Stick 'em Up

In his comments about the Trayvon Martin killing, Bill Cosby dismissed the racial aspect and placed blame on our lax controls of guns.  I disagree with him on the first part. The odds of a black man spending the night at home after having killed a white person in Sanford Florida are steep, even if it was in one of those black gated communities. But I’m with him all the way when it comes to them there guns.
 
Our gun control policies are simply too liberal. Yes liberal! What better word describes laws that specifically defend owners’ rights to carry loaded weapons openly in places like bars and churches? (OK. “Permissive” or “lenient” will do.) People who feel as I do often cite a laundry list of tragic events such as Tucson, Virginia Tech and Columbine. But it could be and is argued that the need to be armed outweighs these negatives. A far more accurate measure is the comparative homicide rates in nations, states and cities. Every report I’ve heard showed conclusively that the stricter the controls the fewer the killings
 
“I’m an NRA member AND I VOTE” was the text of a popular bumper sticker awhile ago, to which I’d often mumble to myself “yes, but only once.” I wonder why it’s been years since I’ve heard of any polling results on this subject. At that time the public was generally in favor of more regulation. After Googling the subject I found that it still is, not on the most severe measures such as restricting handgun ownership to law enforcement, but on the future of gun control in general, stricter regulation was the clear winner in poll after poll. The status quo was second choice with less control a distant third.
 
The reluctance of the Democratic Party to take a position on this subject over the years has mystified me. Of course the NRA controls considerable votes. But it has been, and never more than today, a de facto arm of the Republican Party. Barack Obama hasn’t said or done a thing on gun control as president and yet the muckety mucks of the NRA have publicly made his defeat a priority.
 
Public opinion in the polls I saw favored gun control, but by less of a margin than in previous years. It’s moving in this direction because the gun lobby has been dominating the public conversation. Our president is a smart man. But he has yet to show he understands that on this subject appealing to independent voters is a much more fertile field for him and most Democrats than trying to pacify National Rifle Association mentality.