Had to Listen to an Anti-Gunnie

I was driving to work this morning, minding my own business, listening to the radio, when my ears got assaulted by an anti-gunnie. Came close to putting the car in the median and screaming.

Seriously, “This Morning” on WRKO hosted by Scott Allan Miller did a segment with John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence.

They were talking about the passing (yeah) of the law that limits gun makers and gun dealers liability if a third party misuses an otherwise legally sold handgun. Rosenthal claims to be a gun owner and that he loves skeet shooting. I have no doubt that he does, although a caller disagreed. Too many gun owners think they own “good” guns while maroons own “evil” handguns, so-called assault weapons, and fifty caliber rifles.

Rosenthal certainly epitomizes such a gun owner. I can imagine him on the skeet field with his fine over/under shotgun. Yet, he’s created an organization to ban handguns. He pays for a giant billboard in Boston that calls for gun banning. With friends like this….

Miller made one mistake that led to a rancorous interchange. Miller stated he knew that you could not buy a machine gun. Rosenthal corrected him, but Miller argued with him. Later Miller corrected himself by saying that you could not walk into a gun store and then out with a fully automatic weapon. It takes a grueling licensing procedure and a lot of money.

There’s one thing that Rosenthal said that we gunnies need to look out for. He argued that guns and tobacco are the only products not regulated for public safety and that this has led to selling “dangerous” fifty caliber rifles that are advertised as being able to shoot down planes (that’s what he said, the big fibber).

Miller pointed out that guns are regulated by a host of other laws and that Rosenthal stretched the truth when he argued guns were not safety regulated. It’s true that guns are not regulated by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, but such regulation is something that Rosenthal and his ilk want.

Guns are dangerous by design. They are weapons even if designed only for target or skeet shooting. There is nothing that can be done to make them “safe” in the sense that you can make a toy safer by banning small parts.

Gun banners have failed now to bankrupt the gun industry. They’ve failed in public opinion with more people buying guns than ever before. Let’s make sure they fail in trying to make guns a “consumer product.”