Worst possible case, having one or two innocent people nicked by stray bullets here and there is a small price to pay for not having places like Auschwicz or Belsen Bergen in your country. The odds are about like those of getting hit by lightning.
Posted on 04/20/2005 9:39:11 AM PDT by real saxophonist
Innocents take hits in gun culture
By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Staff Writer
It would be interesting to hear violence-mongering simpletons like Ted Nugent explain to Anna Maria Moreno how guns keep you safe.
In Houston on Saturday, Nugent, a burned-out rocker and gun nut, told a cheering assembly at the National Rifle Association convention what too many of them already believe:
"Remember the Alamo! Shoot 'em!" Nugent shouted. "To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun, and when they attack you, shoot 'em."
Moreno, 47, couldn't be reached for comment on this battle cry. She's still recovering from a stray bullet that landed in her neck the very day Nugent issued his NRA-sanctioned ode to killing.
Moreno ended up in serious condition at Denver Health Medical Center on Saturday. She arrived after one man pulled a gun and opened fire on another who supposedly tried to steal his motorcycle.
The alleged thief pulled his own piece and shot back, police say.
The combatants fired a total of seven shots. None hit their intended targets. Instead, a slug slammed into Moreno's neck and put the lie to Nugent's rant.
"The bad guys" aren't the only ones who end up dead or wounded when everyone is armed.
Moreno didn't try to steal anyone's motorcycle. She didn't aid or abet anyone who did. She didn't put herself in harm's way by knowingly going to a dangerous place.
The gunplay that wounded her didn't happen late at night.
It happened in broad daylight.
The Wild West shootout that left her hospitalized didn't take place at a bar, social club or some other joint where people too often check their common sense at the curb.
This violence took place at the Jumbo Car Wash. Young people frequent the car wash in warm weather, police said.
This apparently was meant to explain the gunshots heard between the soap and rinse cycles this time of year.
It's spring in America, when a young man's fancy turns to firepower.
Sounds like a lyric from Ted Nugent. He is, after all, the guy who gave us "Wango Tango" ("You got to pretend your face is a Maserati").
Trouble is, Moreno was not at the Jumbo Car Wash. She was shopping at a store across the street.
That's all she did to join the long list of innocent victims of America's guns- are-good culture.
Those people are legion across the country. But on this day, the sixth anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, you needn't look out of state.
Like Ted Nugent, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold believed in the liberating power of firearms. They got one of the guns used in their killing spree via a legal loophole that made straw purchases of weapons easier. The NRA didn't want that loophole closed after Harris and Klebold gunned down 12 students and one teacher at Columbine.
The NRA's hands-off approach to gun regulation ensures that hundreds of millions of weapons remain in American society.
Therein lies the irony. Owning a gun for protection guarantees nothing.
Last month, a 9-year-old in Pueblo died after accidentally shooting herself with a handgun she found in her father's bedroom.
In October, a shot from a front-yard altercation at a high school party tore through a wall and killed an unarmed 17-year-old inside a home in Wheat Ridge. She'd have been just as dead if she'd held an Uzi in each hand.
The list goes on. It will grow as long as folks refuse to distinguish between Ted Nugent's fantasy and Anna Maria Moreno's fact.
In Nugent's dream, more guns mean more security. In Moreno's world, more guns mean you can't shop on Saturday afternoon.
Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
I'm not even a rabid pro-gun person--never owned one, don't want one, someone in my family was almost killed by a nut with one--but this article is Exhibit A in Strained Logic. Someone commits a crime with a gun, and Nugent approving of gun use is somehow connected, in some fuzzy way, somehow... Uh, ok.
Worst possible case, having one or two innocent people nicked by stray bullets here and there is a small price to pay for not having places like Auschwicz or Belsen Bergen in your country. The odds are about like those of getting hit by lightning.
I see this is an unbiased article! I stopped reading right there. No reason to continue.
There should be a mega barf alert in the header :)
"The NRA's hands-off approach to gun regulation ensures that hundreds of millions of weapons remain in American society..."
Well, them or the 2nd Amendment.
So what's wrong with this statement? I believe the same thing!
The Nuge for Senate! He moved to Texas recently and Hutchison is retiring IIRC...let's draft Ted!
Easy enough to remedy this situation. Which weapon did the bullet come from?
1) Citizen being robbed - civil suit for reckless endangerment. Assault charges if he drew the weapon and his life was not in danger.
2) Criminal who used a firearm in the commission of a crime. Go straight to jail, do not collect $200. Hopefully the criminal rights lobby won't get him free.
What does Ted Nugent and NRA members have to do with this? By that liberal windbag's logic the entire press should be banned because some 'journalists' fabricate stories.
"It would be interesting to hear violence-mongering simpletons like Ted Nugent explain to Anna Maria Moreno how guns keep you safe." -Jim Spencer
It would be interesting to hear crime-apologist Jim Spencer explain to an unarmed and vulnerable population how being unable to defend one's self is keeping them safe.
And if guns are so bad and crime-breeding, why do police have them then?
Or perhaps Mr. Spencer can explain to a rape victim that ballistically defending herself is more of a crime in his eyes than what the rapist did.
I guess in Mr. Spencer's world, everything is okay if you wish it away.
Gun control means hitting the target... that is the first thing you gotta know.
And were either of the shooters former felons who could not legally carry a concealed weapon? Gee, that isn't mentioned here for some STRANGE reason.
Self-evident in the words 'Denver Post' and 'editorial'... 8~)
Gun culture .... yep, that derned gun culture. Stupid gun culture, Minutemen (not today's ones, but the 1776 ones) and all that. I wish the gun culture would be dismantled. /sarcasm
I would pay to see this pantywaist call Nuge this to his face.
This column ran on the anniversary of Columbine? Hey, let's get Michael Moor to "weigh" in while we're at it.
I doubt that the "Nuge" supports the right for criminals like that motorcycle thief to posess undoubtedly illegal guns any more than anyone else does. I suspect the bike's owner probably didn't own his gun legally either, and if he did he should have spent more time practicing. It is sad that people like Moreno get caught in situations like this, and exemplify the rule that you should always be sure of your backstop when employing a firearm, but I didn't see anything in there about a cop standing by to prevent that low-life from stealing that motorcycle. If the owner hadn't had a gun, he would probably still have tried to physically prevent the theif from stealing, and would have gotten killed for his trouble. Result, one dead kid, and the bike is stolen anyway. In this case, I see that the owner's gun prevented that theft.
How does someone who doesn't drink and has never done drugs become a burn-out?
What a load of ... Life isn't fair. Bad things happen to innocents. More bad things happen to unarmed innocents.
Re your point 1). In Texas it is legal to use deadly force to defend property. The suit for reckless endangerment might still fly, but the assault charge wouldn't. I think that might go for a few other states as well, though not sure about colorado.
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