More on Mayor Moron

Much as I hate to admit it, Mayor Moron, as Dr. G. likes to call him, has hit it just right this time. I refer to his campaign, ever since the Aurora, Colorado movie massacre, to get our politicians to at least acknowledge the need for something to be done about these mass shootings.

On the one side, we have the NRA and their fellow travelers who are opposed to any  restrictions whatsoever on any type of firearm. On the diametrically opposite side, we have the gun control freaks who would disarm everyone, including the army and police on the basis that arms sales are immoral.

Certainly there is room between these two entrenched positions for some debate, compromise and more reasonable positions on this important issue. 

Clearly, in a free society, there exists the need for the public to protect themselves against those with inimical intentions towards them as well as for society to protect itself from a government bent on imposing dictatorship on its people. We can't let the government have all the guns. But it should be obvious to anyone with even half a brain in his head that an ordinary private citizen bent on minding his own business has no need for an assault weapon. He may have  need of a few long guns for hunting, or a handgun for property and personal protection. Certainly no private citizen needs to amass an arsenal of guns and ammunition, which we find time and again to be the state of those who subsequently perpetrate the massacres of which we have become all too familiar.

It is not unreasonable to require some regulation of firearms, such as restrictions on the types available to the public and a restriction as to the total number of firearms that any individual can own. We regulate drugs, which harms the owner more than anyone else so why not firearms whose main victims are other than their owners.

Unlike his usual dictatorial methods, Mayor Moron is not trying to push an unpopular regulation through the city council. He is demanding, through his powers of persuasion, his access to media attention, and spending of his political capital, that those people currently engaged in taking positions on political issues take a position on this one. The amazing thing is that no one is listening. In fact, Bloomberg has been criticized for harping on this subject. I heard one comment to the effect that, every time we get one of these mass shootings people call for gun control. Implying, I suppose, that the whole issue will blow over and there is no point in talking about it.

It's been a few weeks since the shooting and already it seems to have blown by us. There is new news, and the media can't milk this story much longer. But the damage is done. The mourners have buried their dead, some survivors will emerge from the incident a shadow of their former selves; unable to walk or use both hands or think clearly, and others, while not physically maimed carry about in their brains and psyches, long term wounds and scars.

There is an incredible, dogged,  lack of reason among proponents of unlimited and unrestricted gun use in the United States. Their arguments border on the ludicrous, but they are winning. Just witness the repeal of Virginia's one-gun-per-month law and similar repeals in other states that once did have these laws on the books.

Mayor Moron, I salute you. I only hope you won't give up on your latest campaign.