More on VA Tech, Gun Control...

Articles for this week's 'toon:

• Personally, I respect the opinions of responsible, sensible hunters and gun owners, but it is logically clear to me that the "right to bear arms" is not a vital constitutional right... on par with, say, the right to free speech. It is a serious public safety issue, and guns are extremely dangerous tools that need to be heavily regulated.
  
  The Brady Campaign's Dennis Henigan debates gun control online, and makes an obvious point:
  

  The innocent victims at Va. Tech. did not die because a young person was deranged. They died because a deranged young person had access to guns. If he had been armed with a knife, or baseball bat, or shampoo bottle, 32 people would not have died.

  See also Alex Koppelman in Salon on why the Democrats dumped gun control from their agenda.


• The 'toon was partially inspired by a quote from an early West Wing episode, my favorite argument that I've ever heard on the gun control debate. It comes after the first season, when white supremacists try to kill Charlie Young and end up hitting Bartlett, and press secretary C.J. is giving a briefing to the White House Press Corps. It underscores perfectly just how preposterous that aspect of the pro-gun argument is:

  There were 36 homicides last night. 480 sexual assaults. 3411 robberies. 3685 aggravated assaults, all at gun point. And if anyone thinks those crimes could have been prevented if the victims themselves had been carrying guns, I only remind you that the President of the United States was shot last night while surrounded by the best-trained armed guards in the history of the world.



• A lot of the rhetoric in the 'toon was drawn from the "Facts" pages for the Brady Campaign and the NRA... the Brady page makes this excellent point:

  Ironically, the NRA forbids its own members from carrying guns into the NRA's national convention, but they want to force the rest of us to let those people carry guns into our schools, restaurants, parks, sports stadiums, streets, and anywhere else they want.

  However, the most valuable thing I read was this priceless "editorial" on the CNN site by Ted Nugent. Reads like it was written by a 5 year-old...