The Kool-Aid

Let's start by getting real: Guns aren't pencils.

by Isaiah Thompson

There I was, dear readers, your own Man Overboard!, shouting into the void about the Tucson shootings — and what should you do but assail me with thoughtful, even passionate, responses. (Last week I ridiculed the gun industry's favorite line, that "guns don't kill people, people kill people," as an abdication of responsibility, and blamed the political "hate industry" for fomenting irrational anger).

Surely you're not drinking the "respectful engagement" Kool-Aid? Very well: Respectfully, I hereby engage. To my friend who read the column over, paused, and said, "This is about one thing: gun control" — I'm coming to agree. The inflammatory rhetoric matters less, I now think, than taking a sober look at the consequences of letting just about anyone purchase super-lethal weapons.

And on that note, in response to the reader who wrote me that "guns are no more responsible for death and injury than a lead pencil is responsible for poor penmanship": I thank you for your letter, but disagree with every neuron in my collected synapses. Ask a cop; ask a federal agent: The availability of assault weapons means that criminals get them more easily. This isn't speculation, it's fact: A recent series by The Washington Post ("The Hidden Life of Guns") revealed that more than 60,000 of the guns fueling the drug wars in Mexico (which, incidentally, have spilled into our country) originated from U.S. stores (Mexico doesn't let its citizens buy assault weapons). Likewise, the criminals who gun down our police officers: Philly cops have traced innumerable confiscated weapons to originally legal purchases. Bad people kill people, yes — and current gun laws make it easy.

By all means, blame the criminals — but I suggest pointing at least one of your 10 fingers at the NRA, too, which opposes even the most rudimentary safeguards. Its populist front is just that — a front. The NRA is the gun industry, and knows full well its weapons are used for crime. Luckily, there is a big, vast, sprawling middle ground that I hope most of us can occupy together. It just requires the gun enthusiasts to give themselves one sharp pinch and wake the hell up: Nobody is trying to take away your right to own a gun — just to impose some rational limits. For Pete's sake (and I mean that, Pete), the most contentious debate in Congress right now is over whether to reinstate the federal Assault Weapons Ban, which outlawed such public-friendly weapons as the UZI.

There's plenty of room for respectful debate, but let's start by getting real: Guns aren't pencils.

Angry one-fingered individuals should direct their complaints to isaiah.thompson@citypaper.net.