Carrying Guns

SINCE THE WORLD TRADE CENTER was attacked, membership in the national Rifle Association has nearly doubled, most states have made it legal to carry guns in public, and gun ownership across the fruited plain has increased dramatically. A traditionally gun happy civilization, America, has turned it up a notch or two. All the while, the United States government has created a vast system to conduct a complete and thorough surveillance of the American people, to monitor nearly everything we do, and congress has legislated many of our basic civil lliberties out of existence with such laws as "The Patriot Act". So much for the old argument that a well armed citizenry is a defense against tyranny from its own government. A well armed citizenry accedes meekly to all manner of tyranny, actually. And yet, our conservative colleagues continue to insist that a well armed America is the only way to go, that would be mass murderers would be gunned down in their tracks, before ever having a chance to finish their foul deeds, were the American citizenry well armed. If you believe that, you deserve to, with your own fate linked to and tested by the proposition. In angry, neurotic, road rage infected America, the one we all know and love, a well armed citizenry is likely to lead to a whole lot of excitement, though not of the sort we want. A state legislator in Florida, one of those well groomed young Ted Cruz-Marco Rubio types, recently indicated that he would feel safer if he walked into a fast food restaurant and found twenty other customers carrying guns. Armed people tend to be more courteous to each other, he noted. I'm not making this up. This is how crazy we have become, notably, the conservative segment of us. If I ever walk into a Mickey Dees and find twenty other customers carrying guns, I'll raise my hands above my head, or fold them meekly behind my back, turn around, close my eyes, pray, and try to sneak out the nearest door. I'd be lucky to get out alive. Anybody who would feel safer in this situation is plain crazy.