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.
Well done. You have proven yourself as a true FReeper and not a troll (trolls never reply back). Nice tagline and welcome to FR again.
Hey, newbie, don't lip off to the longtimers.
The JPFO doesn't seem to agree with that analysis. If every time brownshirts had gone on one of their midnight trips to haul somebody off several of them had been killed, the whole thing could have been derailed.
I see you redirected. Cool. Welcome aboard.
Exactly. A. Sohzhenitzyn, in The Gulag Archipelago, said just what you have posted. He lamented the fact that the Russain people had not resisted when they had a better chance of winning against the "System".
Once the "System" is in place, it is much more difficult to resist.
Never give up your guns! Armed citizens are the best defense against tyranny.
Hmmm...so a girl getting hit by a stray bullet is the fault of the man who defended his property from a nut? I guess in order to save the children, we shouldn't defend ourselves with effetive tools, is that it? Maybe, just maybe, this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the criminal in the first place, which is where the blame goes. Charge the criminal since this girl's injury was an unintended result of his aggression.
And the last examples of a little girl's tragic mistake and some stupid retard carelessly firing off guns has nothing to do with those of us with common sense owning them. It has everything to do with people being idiots and not taking proper precautions, like a guy who's dog goes out and bites somebody because he didn't lock it up. Should dogs be banned? No. Quit messing with our Bill of Rights, morons.
It's also a very small price to pay for not having about 50% of all home burglaries being "hot" where the burglar breaks into an occupied house, as regularly happens in England. The English burglaries also are often real home invasions where the burglars capture the residents and force them to disclose security codes.
In the U.S. only about 10% of all home burglaries are "hot" and many of those are accidental, in that the burglar doesn't plan to enter an occupied dwelling. It's not because we're an inherently gentler, more law abiding people; it's because American burglars are justifiably afraid of being shot and killed by their intended victims.
You are right, so let’s take your logic to its inevitable conclusion:
"I weight 220lbs and have a black belt. We are alone. Why don’t you lay down, open your legs wide and let me do my thing….. oh, If you’re male, turn around. Don’t worry it wont hurt that bad. You’ll know when I am done when I spit in your face."
You Sir, enable people to be victims with your attitude.
Some would think it better to die fighting than be herded off to be worked to death. Obviously you think otherwise.
Of course, then it wouldn't have been called the Holocaust, it would have been the modern Masada.
Apology accepted. You'll find that I probably post more things with which I disagree than agree, and usually without initial comment. Welcome to FR.
Little decaf there noob. real saxophonist only posted the article. This isn't an echo chamber where only pro-our-stuff is posted. You gotta know thy enemy, and real saxophonist is helping out.
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