Response to a reader

GTL Reader WILLIAM BURKE writes the following:


G-T Liberal: how come you love guns but would deny the same privilege to others? Doesn't that make you just another elitist, like Ted Kennedy, Hillary or Chuckie Schumer, grabbing guns from citizens with their Uzi-toting bodyguards by their sides?

I don't recall saying anywhere that I would deny others the privilege of owning a nice little honey like my sweet li'l .38 Special - say what you will, the stopping power's in a revolver; just line up a 9 mm cartridge next to a .38 and you can't help but notice that you'd probably rather be hit with the 9 mm. Fewer grains of powder, smaller slug. As my good pal Ice Cube says, "the bigger the cap, the better the pillin'," and the converse is of course true.

But I digress.

I want law abiding sane citizens to have access to weapons, so that when the radical fundagelical whackos come to convert us by force to their toxic brand of God's love, we can remind them that there are easy ways to quit smoking forever, if you catch my meaning.

Also, I'm sick of liberals bringing knives to a gunfight, and I want to remind people with my own political philosophy that there are times to stick to your guns. And you can't stick to what you don't have. I just choose to make mine literal as well as metaphorical.

My support for gun control - controlling access to guns and allowing only sane and safe individuals to own them - is in no way contradictory to my enthusiasm for the high-velocity sports.

As far as your rogue's gallery of Schumer, Clinton, Kennedy... I know these are "hot button" names which I'm supposed to immediately and reflexively defend - I've read the script, you know. Listen, there are lots of issues in politics. By and large, I find these individuals' voting records to be pretty acceptable to the needs of middle income families like mine. I want the minimum wage raised to a real livable minimum. I care about health care for the poor. I don't get very excited by the "moral decay" issue or Janet Jackson's breast in public. I don't like censorship... what I hate is corruption and hypocrisy. These guys are infinitely better than the sleazy thieves and insider-traders Frist, DeLay, Cunningham...

William, thank you for your kindness. Knowing there are readers out there bothering to share my thoughts means the world to this wizened old politico. I'd love to get out on the range with you some time.

Comment again.

BTW, I'm no elitist, whatever that is. Check the register at your local country club to find out who the elitists are. Liberals are mostly the opposite of elites in that we are rarely well-connected, and rarely control vast financial resources or business structures. I did, however, go to college, can read a newspaper, understand a butterfly ballot, and care about what happens to my country. If that's an elitist, then guilty as charged.