EDITORIAL - Gun ban

Pro-gun advocates love to use the argument that guns do not kill, that only people do. Correct! That is precisely why there is a gun ban proposal -- so that people who are potential killers cannot have the means to do so.

That guns do not kill, only people do is a correct premise that is understood and used the wrong way. It leaves guns -- the very meat and substance of the proposal -- entirely out of the picture and focuses the onus on people.

With guns out of the picture, the assumption then becomes that it is all right for people to have firearms for as long as they are the right people. But who are the right people, or the wrong ones, for that matter? Is there any proven test or measure that can tell the difference?

It is easy for us to pigeonhole ourselves over this issue. And there is the rub. This is never an easy issue, for the simple reason that the lack of any qualified means to determine who are the right people to own guns can leave that determination in our own hands.

And that would be self-serving, no? That would allow a doctor or a lawyer to say, hey, I am a professional and that makes me the right person to own a gun. On the other hand, you are an unlettered sonofabitch who does not even pay taxes. That makes you the wrong guy to have a gun.

Of course, it would have been great if it were as simple as that. But as everyone knows, and as the records would show, it is never as simple as that. Minds that go berserk never make distinctions between the schooled or the ignorant, between the well-fed and the destitute.

Responsible gun ownership, another catchy phrase often mouthed by pro-gun advocates, is of no moment either, considering that responsibility is learned and thus can quickly be unlearned under the right circumstances.

To put it bluntly, there are no right or responsible people when it comes to the ability to pull the trigger, especially when the mind goes blank. So, as it is correct that only people kill and not guns by themselves, let us then not put guns in the hands of unpredictable killers.

What a quirky argument it is to say that people, not guns, are killers but that it is all right to let people have guns for as long as they are the right people since the right people do not kill unless necessary and that the right people just happens to be the ones making the pitch.