NRU, guns, control and sensibility edition

This is a very news round up heavy week ... there are drafts of other things that need to make the light of day ... but I am also buried under a million articles that I am using to make yet another exam reading list ... yes, reading things in order to make the list ....

These are just a small collection of stories I have been reading about guns and death and gun control, sensible and not.

Ok... I am going to freely admit that I don't think anyone except the police (and then again sometimes that is questionable) and the military should have guns.  If you want to hunt so desperately, use a bow and arrow ... get some real skills.  All that to say that I don't tolerate the so-called "sensible gun laws" - I am a pacifist because I know what I would be capable of if you let me do whatever I want.  The problem with only discussing "illegally obtained guns" and calling that *sensible* is that it discounts the fact that too many people with guns -- legally or illegally obtained -- settle disputes in this way.  Still think we don't have a gun problem in this country?? [Each of these links is a different story about deaths wrought from guns in the past two weeks.]

Oh... and what exactly is sensible about this? I am afraid I am giving this guy exactly what he wants, publicity.  But I think the rebuttal from the law enforcement professionals who actually do the policing/patrolling in Milwaukee deserve to get their say -- which appears towards the end of this story.

Rather, there should be more attention paid to what is going on in our cities on a daily basis -- and more talking with folks like these about what it is like to live in the kind of violence that guns bring.  They may not have all the answers, but they might just have the right questions. And this woman ought to get four votes in the House for gun control laws.

I wish someone had had the presence of mind to ask this man how he feels about gun control now.  Instead they took the opportunity to talk about how to get more people ready to shoot first and try to talk them out of it later.  It could have been a really interesting piece, instead it was only kind of interesting.

Here is a visual representation of gun-deaths and the years of life stolen by them.  If you didn't click the link above, here's one that is the verbal representation of life stolen by gun violence.