Taking One's Best Shot, So to Speak...

You may have thought you'd heard it all, but you'd be wrong.

Consider this story which ran in the Washington Post this past Sunday: Plaintiff in Handgun Case Is Suing D.C. for Right (to) Carry Firearms in Public.

Just in case you didn't catch it, here it is again: Plaintiff in Handgun Case Is Suing D.C. for Right (to) Carry Firearms in Public.

It's difficult to list how many ways, on how many levels, this is insane, but since I like a challenge, let me try:

1. Some bozohead is going to sue the city of Washington, D.C. This is the city that doesn't have enough money to plow snow, fix potholes, run decent schools, and hire enough police to keep the streets safe. I think that defending itself against a stupid lawsuit is an excellent way for the city to spend the money left over after all the crooked city employees have finished looting the treasury.

2. Nothing makes me feel safer than knowing that all the unbalanced idiots around me are packing heat. "Are you talkin' to ME, punk? BLAM!!"

3. If you thought road rage was bad, think how it will be when everyone can carry a gun in his car. This should be interesting.

4. The absolute Constitutional right to own a gun does not magically convey the maturity and good sense necessary to use it.

Once again, before all the gun nuts come down on me like a ton of bricks, let me say this: I know what the Second Amendment says. I don't have a problem with gun ownership in general. But I think that wrapping oneself in the verbiage of the Constitution as if it were the Quran (every letter of which is the absolutely perfect and utterly unchangeable word of God...just ask any Muslim) is silly. The Founders wrote the Constitution in the 1700's and understood that it was being written at a moment in time - that's why they built in a process for changing it when necessary (that would be Article V).

Perhaps it's time to have that debate about the Second Amendment. But it will never happen.

In the meantime, D.C. will waste money it doesn't have defending itself against a useless lawsuit brought by a person with nothing better to do.

And I feel less safe than ever.

Have a good day. If you plan to visit D.C., wear your kevlar vest. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo