Since I don't have anything else for today, and I am trying to be a good blogger and post at least once a day...
Recently one of the topics in the gun blogosphere was another of Bradyite Dennis Henigan's rants in the Huffington Post. In said rant he cited Molly Ivins' famous column (discussed previously here and here) in which she observed (in her own half-witted attempt at snarky humor) that people were seldom killed by cleaning their knives:
Let me start this discussion by pointing out that I am not antigun. I'm proknife. Consider the merits of the knife.
In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
I suppose that might be funny...for about the blink of an eye or however long it takes one to consider the real-life ramifications of a "general substitution of knives for guns." There are going to be those of us that, for whatever reason, are never going to get to the level of physical fitness at which your typical 20-year-old college football running back resides. I'm one of them, with my mild case of cerebral palsy that left me walking with a limp in my right leg. I'd really rather not have to take my chances on my gimpy leg being able to carry me faster than said 20-year-old with a knife. And then there are certain other classes of people who are going to be left shit out of luck, too. I am reminded of a song from Gary Allan's 1998 cd It Would Be You, titled "No Judgment Day":
Willie Johnson was locking up his store Monday night
And someone snuck in and they commenced a fight
His wife Amelia found him lying on the freezer floor
Now this sleepy little town, it ain't sleepy no more
Sheriff Walker holds three local boys in jail
They confessed right down to the last detail
They beat Willie with a bat, he was 70 years old
Then they bought some beer with the six dollars they stole
That song was based on a true story; the shopkeeper in the song was a friend of writer Allen Shamblin's father.
So...yeah. Certain people, among them the Willie Johnsons of the world would be be left at the mercy of bigger and stronger thugs, unable to adequately defend themselves. And Molly Ivins and her ilk effectively say, "Too bad for y'all. Bye now!" Is it so wrong of me to think that makes them callous at best, and downright evil at worst?
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