| Mixed Bag of News Stories |
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| Written by Daniel White | |
| Friday, 22 August 2008 | |
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I was looking back at some of the gun-related stories from the past week in the news, and several of them struck me as interesting. Gun-Toting Granny 85-year-old Leda Smith was on "Good Morning America" Thursday to talk about finding a burglar in her house and scaring him off with her gun. While ABC aired an interview with Smith regarding her experience, NBC devoted a whole 15 seconds to it. As noted in the linked article, similar non-interest from network morning shows was demonstrated in the aftermath of the Heller case, when all three reputedly aired less than four minutes of combined coverage. I can't help but wonder how much airtime would have been devoted had the Supreme Court ruled the other way. Texas School District Allows Armed Teachers The Harrold Independent School District in Texas voted unanimously to allow teachers ans staff who have a concealed handgun license and meet several additional criteria to carry guns in schools. Superintendent David Thweatt believes it is common sense to have an additonal line of defense against school shootings. I agree with that assessment. Of course, the anti-gun media is having a field day with the issue and devoted all kinds of bad press. Sportsman Want a Sportsman in the White House Well, duh. From the Department of the Obvious, a survey by the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation found that 76 percent of sportsmen surveyed preferred to vote for a presidential candidate who also hunted or fished. While it isn't exactly revolutionary that any given group prefers someone like-minded when voting, what is important is that there are an estimated 40 million sportsman in this country who are eligible to vote. Of course, that's why John Kerry pretended to be a duck hunter during the last election. Gun Owners Asked to Prove Innocence In Weleetka, Oklahoma, authorities canvassed all gun shops in the area to compile a list of anyone who had bought a .40 caliber Glock. They were all then sent a letter asking them to come to bring their guns to the police station to be test fired so the bullets and casings could be analyzed to see if they matched bullets used during recent murders. Realizing that the odds were very low that a murderer would actually comply, they claimed the action was merely a "process of elimination". Those who didn't show up were immediately regarded as suspects. "They can have any number of reasons" for not volunteering, Jessica Brown, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said. "They could be against it, they could be anti-government, or they eventually may want to help." I bet she thinks they're bitter and cling to guns or religion, too. I'm all in favor of trying to solve crimes, but I'd hate to think that merely owning a firearm is reason enough to be a suspect in a crime. Perhaps the time spent canvassing all the local gun shops and compiling this information could have been better spent doing forensic analysis and interviewing witnesses. But, that's just this layman's opinion. |