I'm in the market for a kevlar sleeping bag

If you're planning a peaceful summer vacation, communing with nature in one of our national parks, you may want to make new plans. From McClatchy News:

[T]he Interior Department may relax a 25-year ban on loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges, leaving the issue for states to decide. In a decision that the National Rifle Association has applauded, the department announced that it will issue a new set of rules by April 30.

You might think the ban is being lifted so that citizens can better protect themselves because, you know, crime has increased in the national parks. Uh, no. Crime has actually gone down, dramatically the the national park system:

The number of criminal offenses reported in the nation's parks declined by 25 percent from 1995 to 2006, going from 6,009 to 4,485, according to statistics compiled by the National Park Service. That includes murders, rapes, robberies, kidnappings, aggravated assaults, burglaries, thefts and arson.

So why does anyone need to carry a loaded gun around a national park? Well, according the NRA Chief Lobbyist Chris Cox,

[L]aw-abiding citizens shouldn't be prohibited from defending themselves while visiting the parks. He said the ban was outdated, noting that while only six states allowed citizens to carry handguns for self-defense in 1982, 48 states now issue licenses or permits for people to carry firearms to protect themselves.

Under current law, guns are allowed in national parks only if they're unloaded and stowed.

Unloaded and stowed. Is that such a bad thing? Really?

Coming soon to a home near you: Guns

Guns. I've never shot one. I don't understand the appeal of holding one, having one, shooting one. All I know is they are destroying lives throughout America. In the past 2 weeks I have read about the shootings of a young gay teen in California, an entire family in Maryland shot by their 15-year old son while they slept, and 21 shot with 6 dead in a classroom at Northern Illinois University.

I know there are other stories, too. Lives are ended daily in inner cities across this country, from Baltimore to Detroit to L.A. You may wonder where these guns are coming from, and the sad news is that guns are extremely easy to buy in America. Disturbingly so. From the AP:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The online gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter said it was an unnerving coincidence that he also sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five students at Northern Illinois University.

Another website run by Thompson's company, www.thegunstore.com, also sold a Walther .22-caliber handgun to Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in April on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself.

"I'm still blown away by the coincidences," Thompson said Friday. "I'm shaking. I can't believe somebody would order from us again and do this."

Coincidences? Is he kidding? As long as guns are available like this, we will continue to see these "coincidences" again and again. I don't want to hear any more citizens or especially politicians twisting the Second Amendment for their own purposes. The right to bear arms was written into the Constitution so that a young nation could have a "well regulated militia" for protection and security of the nation — not so that you could go target shooting with a Glock 9 mm handgun.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is working to demand stronger gun laws. We have got to get together on this as a nation before our youngsters feel the only way to to solve their problems is with a gun.

He needs a gun ... why?

In my ongoing quest to understand why any citizen needs to have handguns or semi-automatic weapons, I give you a good case against owning them:

Union Bridge Man Sentenced for Firing AK-47 to Silence Dogs

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) - A Union Bridge man has acknowledged in court making a bad decision when he fired his AK-47 earlier this year because of his neighbor's barking dogs.

Forty-five-year-old Dennis Kolb pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Wednesday after telling the judge he screwed up. He was sentenced to one year in prison at his trial in Frederick County Circuit Court.

No one was injured by the gunfire.

On April 28, Kolb said barking dogs were keeping him from sleeping. So he went outside - while intoxicated - with his AK-47 assault rifle and fired multiple shots into the air.

Part Two: She needs a gun ... why?

In all fairness, it's not just the men. From CP24:

He wanted her to turn up the heat - so she shot his big screen TV.

That, in essence, sums up a bizarre case unfolding in a place called Washington Township, Michigan, about 40 kilometres from Detroit, after police were called to a bizarre domestic dispute in a home over the weekend. The argument apparently began when 65-year-old Joseph Grucz asked his spouse Cheryl to make the house a little bit warmer.

It's still not entirely clear why the request enraged the 61-year-old so much, but cops allege she picked up a pistol and fired at him as he cowered behind a pillow. The shot didn't hit him, but careened off in a different direction and put a bullet hole in their plasma TV.

Grucz then fled downstairs and dialed 911. "My wife's got a gun. She's shooting at me," he breathlessly told the operator as he outlined his request for more heat. "She's all excited about it because she's so cheap."

At that point, an already crazy confrontation became almost farcical, as his wife picked up the extension to give her side of the story. "I'm not going to hurt him. He has pushed me over the edge, that was all," she told the startled official. "He has had a stroke, and he's taking it all out on me."

"No I'm not," he defended.

"Yes, he is," she snapped back.

In the end, the heat was put on the wife, who was arrested on a charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm. She could face up to 10 years in prison and even more on the weapon counts that have also been laid against her. She's been ordered to take part in a domestic violence program and was freed on $50,000 bail. But there's no word if she's gone back home to her husband and his now shattered TV set.

Guns in America, continued

In an earlier post about the recent shootings in America, I asked simply, "Why?" And now the past few days have brought more stories of innocent people killed because of guns in the hands of angry, sick individuals. Ironically, this all falls within a few days of an incredibly sad and tragic anniversary: on December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman.

From imaginepeace.com:

Let's not waste the lives of those we have lost. Let's, together, make the world a place of love and joy and not a place of fear and anger. This day of John's passing has become more and more important for so many people around the world as the day to remember his message of Peace and Love and to do what each of us can to work on healing this planet we cherish.

Let's: Think Peace, Act Peace, and Spread Peace. John worked for it all his life. He said, "there's no problem, only solutions." Remember, we are all together. We can do it, we must. I love you!

Yoko Ono Lennon

Please watch John sing "Imagine." Again, I ask: "Why do we need handguns and semi-automatic weapons in America?"

Guns in America: Why?

In the last couple of days I heard two shocking stories of innocent people being shot. The first, of course, being the 19-year-old who shot 8 people with an AK-47 in an Omaha shopping mall. The other story, which hasn't gotten as much press, is about an 8-year-old girl who was shot when she tried to protect her mother from the mother's ex-boyfriend.

These are very different circumstances: in one we have a depressed, angry young man who steals his stepfather's assault rifle and goes on a shooting rampage. In the other situation, domestic violence rears its ugly head again, as a little girl sees her mother get shot twice and then jumps in front of her to protect her from further harm. Unfazed, the ex-boyfriend fired six shots into the little girl, critically injuring her.

The common thread in these stories: guns.

Why does anyone need to have an AK-47 ? Or, for that matter, a 9mm semi automatic pistol like the one used by the gunman in Detroit? There is no reason to have these guns! I know the argument that citizens should have guns for "protection" but I would like to see a study showing how many times a crime has been averted because a victim had a gun. I've never heard of such a study, so if you know of one please let me know.

I have however, seen studies here, here, and here, for example, that show that guns kept in the home are much more likely to be used to kill innocent people than to ever be used in self-defense. From the Brady Campaign:

A gun kept in the home is 22 times more likely to be used in an unintentional shooting, a criminal assault or homicide, or an attempted or completed suicide than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense.

So I ask you: why ?