The National Rifle Association

Really?!? The best you can come up with is the video games, the television, the movies and the handicapped? Dolts.

An armed presence at the school ... great idea. All the more to get people used to armed persons wandering about in officious capacity. Although, as a short term solution, I could be all about it. Problem is that it won't be short term.

Bah. Take your Nerf version of the world and stuff it.

I have very likely renewed my NRA membership for the last time.

Why is it...

that when an NFL footballer gets a gun and kills himself and another, the talking heads babble about gun control. But when an NFL footballer gets liquored up and kills a friend, nothing much but crickets.

The problem isn't...

that firearms exist. The problem is that godless people have no reason to behave. The problem is that too many people feel that violence is an acceptable answer to any and every issue that displeases them. The problem is that our politicians won't let a tragedy, or more appropriately an atrocity, go to waste. The problem... is that we will have a knee jerk reaction and it will again be the incorrect one.

The lazy and opportunistic will do all they can to further their agendas while the raw emotion still simmers. Lazy because they will blame a tool for the psychotic's misuse and opportunistic because their agenda cannot progress in the absence of an atrocity.

The firearm is no more to blame for these deeds than the lack of proper mental care, vio lent video games, the rock and roll or the devil made me do it...

What is to blame is a lackadaisical attitude toward firearms, toward life itself in fact, and the simple lack of morals. Firearms are not toys. Life is not yours for the whimsical taking. And morals need be no more complicated than do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It is training and education. It is holding people accountable. It is having constructive punishment for willful acts contrary to being a decent human being.

It is not further restrictions on the citizenry.

And now...

My television and reading habits are slightly altered. I will ensure that I eschew any activity possible that would lend a single cent to either Mr. Costas or Mr. Whitlock. A shame really... I enjoyed some Sunday night football and I used to think the gentleman from Kansas City was a fairly interesting read... from time to time.

But, those who wish to paint me with a broad stroke of a pen and steadily ignore the root of the problem do not need me in their audience.

Incidentally, the problem is not "Gun Culture". The problem, among many things, is broken families, the value placed on illicit mind and mood-altering substances and, to some extent, modern culture as it is. Bah... you kids... off my lawn.

The root of so many problems though is the illicit drug trade. Until our elected betters understand that its the money that can be made from this illegal trade is vastly more than just about anything else you can do to earn a living, we will continue to fail to have any meaningful impact on this "problem". By declaring war on drugs, all we have done is prop up the price structure... essentially we are subsidizing the drug trade.

Good jobs don't fix this mindset. Gun control doesn't fix this problem. Government subsidies don't fix this problem.

Common sense drug laws fix this problem. Legalize them, regulate them and tax them lightly so that we don't perpetuate the black market...

While everyone seems to be busy...

castigating the sports pundits. We should also pause and read this from Jen Engel...

I watch a fair bit of football, particularly collegiate. I tend to read the sports blurbs on MSN, especially Jason Whitlock's. This because he frequently has something to say that makes me stop and think a little bit. Is he something of a tool? Possibly.

His viewpoint about how the availability of a firearm is why two bodies have prematurely attained ambient temperature is ... in a word... premature. Blaming the object for the deed is, in another word... asinine.

Perhaps these two wouldn't be dead right now without a gun, but I would be willing to bet at least one of them would be just as dead if the only weapon in the room was a pair of fists.

So, result of disarmament... maybe... maybe one less fatality. Considering that the one (in this case, likely the aggressor) whose body temperature still exceeds ambient is going to have to explain themselves, and more importantly, live with themselves. This is a win how?

Anyone who is so disconnected with reality as to think that a gun is how you settle a dispute, is... succinctly put... disconnected with reality. This, of course, presumes that the dispute is not already elevated to deadly force for you.

While the opinions may run the gamut about the "tool-worthiness" of Mr. Whitlock, Costas has, near as I can remember, always come off as a sanctimonious ass for whom the word "tool" isn't near strong enough.

Bravo, Jen Engel, for saying pretty much exactly what crossed my mind when I first read Jason Whitlock's words a day or two ago... albeit much more kindly than I could have mustered at the time.

Edited to add...

Now that I have turned on the television I see that Michael Wilbon is cheering on Mr. Costas... people blaming tools rather than people for the misdeeds of the world... no big surprise here.