Strollerderby : NRA

Explaining Plaxico Burress To A Seven Year Old

Brett Singer — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:45:00 GMT

This past week, my son, who is not a big football fan, asked me the following question:

"Dad, did Plaxico Burress shoot himself in the thigh?"

Yes, I said.

"Why did the New York Post call him a Giant Idiot?"

Well, said I, he plays for the Giants. ("I know that, dad.") And he did something really stupid.

"What did he do, dad?"

At this point I had a decision to make. Where do I go with this? I could have avoided the issue I guess, but that seemed pointless since he clearly had heard about the incident at school. Just to make sure, I asked. And yes, kids at school were talking about Quick Draw Burress, the Giant Idiot.

So what did I say? I told him that Plaxico was carrying a gun, which wasn't a great idea but that wasn't the main problem. The main problem was that he was carrying a gun and it went off. Luckily it only hit him, but it could have hit someone else. And the best way to avoid that would be to not have a gun at all.

"Why did he have a gun, dad?"

I don't know, kiddo. Some people think it makes them safer. That if something happened, they would be protected. The thing is, in this case, if Plaxico couldn't even take the gun out of his pocket without it going off accidentally, what makes him think he would be able to use it to defend himself? Plus, if he's afraid that something will happen to him when he goes out, maybe he should stay home. I think I threw in something about how Burress is a good football player, but probably not a very smart guy, since its hard to play football after you shoot yourself in the thigh. If memory serves, that got a laugh.

This isn't exactly what I said, but I think it's pretty close. What I didn't say to my son, but I will say here, is that I think it's really dumb to have guns around children. Plaxico has a 2 year old child at home. This isn't a case of someone trying to protect their home. This is a handgun. It's also an unlicensed handgun, which is a crime. I think I said something about the fact that Plaxico had a gun that he "wasn't supposed to have", without getting into mandatory sentencing laws or other legalities.

I understand that a lot of sports figures feel like targets. But everyone, no matter what they do for a living, have to be responsible. Someone could have gotten hurt. I know it's easy to say that, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." But if there's no gun, the likelihood of someone getting hit with a bullet decreases exponentially.

When I was a kid, I don't think I ever asked my mother these kinds of questions. Reggie Jackson may have been an egomaniac and a womanizer, but as far as I know, he never shot anyone. Or himself.

Image: ebay

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Cop, Gun Dealers Indicted in Boy's Uzi Death

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:57:00 GMT

Who was to blame when 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj accidentally shot himself in the head while firing a mini Uzi at a Massachusetts gun show? Was it the gun club owner, a small-town police chief? Was it the gun dealers who brought a lightweight automatic weapon, not made for hunting but instead manufactured for use by the Israeli army? Was it the 15-year-old who was supervising the boy's shoot? Was it his father, who brought him to the show and allowed him to pick up a gun even professionals say is notoriously hard to handle?

Prosecutors have won indictments for the gun club owner, Pelham (MA) Police Chief Edward Fleury, and the two Connecticut-based gun dealers, Carl Guiffre and Domenico Spano, who brought the Uzi. They are not charging the teenager or the boy's father, whose punishment, we can only imagine, will be lifelong and far worse than anything the courts could hand down.

Knee-jerk anti-gun folks sometimes make me mad; I come from a family that has included fishing and occasionally hunting among its pursuits, and I have a lot of respect for hunters. I grew up taking riflery courses at my summer camp, and loved testing my skills on the rifle range (and I have the NRA-sponsored medals and patches to prove it). But knee-jerk pro-gun folks make me even madder: this was no hunting rifle, no gun that anybody had any business shooting for fun, particularly not a child. With any luck, those indicted this week will serve some jail time -- the penalties for each charge of involuntary manslaughter can range from probation to twenty years imprisonment, plus fines -- but more important, gun shows such as the one that killed Christopher Bizilj will be regulated for improved safety or shut down altogether. Because then at least this hideous, unbearably sad death won't be totally pointless.

More by this author:

Baby Nearly Starves to Death, Diluted Formula to Blame
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Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag

Photo: AP Photo/The Republican, Christopher Evans

Boy Accidentally Kills Himself At Gun Fair

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:31:00 GMT

You gotta love gun folks. You know who I'm talking about - the NRA card-carrying absolutists who hear about an eight-year-old who accidentally killed himself at a gun fair when the UZI he was firing recoiled with such force he shot himself IN THE HEAD, and accuse the Massachusetts state legislator who now wants to pass a law that would prohibit anyone under 21 from shooting a machine gun of trampling our Constitutional rights.

Maybe I'm the crazy one, for being appalled at ads for the show - run by the COP Firearms & Training Company at the Westfield Sportsman's Club - that bragged, "[There is] no age limit or licenses required to shoot machine guns . . . It's all legal and fun." In fact, the entrance fee was waived for children, to encourage gun afficianados to bring their kids.

But, clearly, it's not all fun. And just as obviously, there should be an age limit for handling such incredibly powerful weapons. Although Christopher Bizilj - as well as the other shooters - was accompanied by an instructor, he still managed to lose control of the gun.

The ironic part of the story? Christopher's dad, Dr. Charles Bizilj, is the medical director of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital, in Stafford Springs, Connecticut. How many gunshot wounds do you think he's seen on the job in the ER? Although I'm heartsick for this family, and am sure that Dr. Bizilj will question his judgment for the rest of his life, I can't help but think he should have known better.

Dudes for Palin: Vote for the Hot Chick!

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 19:30:00 GMT

It may not surprise you to learn that, according to the New York Times, “dudes” constitute Sarah Palin’s most vocal supporters. But it may disturb you to learn what these men have to say about her.

Although Palin was ostensibly chosen for her anticipated appeal to women, the former beauty contestant has (gasp!) won over far more men than women, with her initial approval ratings at 44 percent among men and 36 percent among women. (Those numbers have since dropped considerably, down to 31 percent among men.)

Even as many conservatives fault Palin for being, to put it nicely, not “serious” enough, Joe Sixpacks can’t get enough of her. One of Palin's female supporters acknowledged that Palin rallies are about “70-30, maybe 65-35, men to women.” Among the shout-outs that Palin routinely receives at her rallies are cries of, “You tell ‘em babe!” and “You rock me out, Sarah!” Some men sport “Proud to vote for a hot chick” buttons, while others carry “Dudes for Palin” signs.

Palin apparently loves the testosterone-charged rock concert atmosphere of her rallies. After entering a rally to the heading-banging tunes of AC/DC, she told the crowd, “That was kinda cool.” She has also introduced her husband as “Alaska’s First Dude.”

At least one Palin supporter interviewed by the Times admitted that he came to a Palin rally “just to look at her.” He wisely chose to remain anonymous. Let’s hope he realizes that, just as it’s embarrassing to admit to supporting a political candidate simply because of her appearance, actually voting an inexperienced, scandal-plagued woman into the White House simply because she’s “beautiful” at a time in which our country is engaged in two wars, is widely hated throughout the world, and is in the early stages of widespread economic collapse, would be an unforgivably inane decision.

Dudes, if you want to stare at hot chicks, watch Desperate Housewives.

Photo: New York Times

Packin' Heat In Yellowstone

Amy S.F. Lutz — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:03:00 GMT

Hunting isn't allowed in most national parks, so for the past twenty years it's been prohibited to openly carry firearms. You know, some kind of crazy concern about the accidental shooting of campers, protected species, rangers. Now, 47 senators - under the stalwart leadership of Senator Crapo (which pretty much says it all, doesn't it?) - have asked the Interior Department to allow loaded weapons in the parks.

Why would you need to carry a gun someplace you're not actually allowed to use it? That's immaterial to the NRA - who, unsurprisingly, has been working for the last five years to overturn this rule. They want gun policy in the parks to reflect those of the states that border them - Wyoming, Montana and Idaho - which have virtually no gun control.

But there is no Second Amendment issue here. Under current regulations, visitors are allowed to transport guns through the parks, as long as the weapons aren't loaded and kept in the car at all times. What the new policy would do is introduce loaded weapons into an understaffed system already crowded with families. It's hard to imagine that injuries to park visitors and animal residents - both intentional and unintentional - won't increase if this change is made.