Blaming guns for childhood obesity?

St Louis Gun Rights Examiner ^ | 16 March, 2010 | Kurt Hoffman

[marktwain]

Oleg Volk photo (click photo to enlarge) Related Articles

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The forcible citizen disarmament lobby, apparently finding itself on shaky ground Constitutionally, is increasingly relying on "public health" arguments to support its agenda of onerous gun laws. Manifestations of this trend run the gamut from "studies" linking gun ownership to suicide, to the growing trend of medical personnel asking patients about guns they own, to the National Institutes of Health funding research into whether teenagers carrying guns and drinking alcohol increase the risk of "gun violence."

Give the gun prohibitionists some credit, though--they certainly are creative. Recently, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Sue Ontiveros came up with what might be the most . . . novel "public health" argument against guns--that guns are forcing kids to become couch potatoes. In "Childrens' fitness another casualty of random gunfire," she begins by talking about all the walking she did as a child, but says that she now understands why parents would be reluctant to allow their kids to play outside, out of fear of "gun violence":

I wish I could tell Chicago parents to send their kids outdoors, make them walk to school. But in good conscience, I can't. I know many parents don't allow their kids outdoors because they worry about their safety.

She even got Illinois' radical anti-gun group, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV), to weigh in:

[El Gato]

argument against guns--that guns are forcing kids to become couch potatoes

Hmm, Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to his nephew had a different idea.

A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.

Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 1785. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Memorial Edition) Lipscomb and Bergh, editors.