An OK Corral Lesson for Gun Nuts Virginians?

Letter to Romans: Would 2^nd Amend “absolutists” argue a right to own an A-bomb & would gun banners ban sling shots? GOP’s West Virginia pushing machine gun rights while Dems’ Virginia tries to ban all but pea shooters? Do either know criminals & fanatics kill, police protect?

The gun debaters are like those shooting at ducks in a gallery, the fowls never stop coming. The latest, noted the Fox News coverage: “Virginia Democrats have sent a sweeping gun-control package to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk, while West Virgina lawmakers are debating the opposite approach – a proposal that would allow residents to lawfully obtain machine guns. The dueling efforts highlight how sharply gun policy is diverging across the old Virginia border. More than 160 years after West Va split from Virginia during the Civil War [over the states’ rights & slavery issues], the two states are again charting very different political paths – with Democrats in Richmond advancing new firearm restrictions while Republicans in Charleston explore expanding Second Amendment rights.”

Yet, the Fox story & the political combatants mentioned plainly don’t see through the smoke to see the irony in that Civil War parting of ways & today’s war over guns. Recall it was the Democratic Virginians who went to war with their canons blazing over Fort Sumpter while the Republicans in West Virginia fought to take Old Virginia’s guns away as well as its slaves. Nor do many in Virginia (or elsewhere) yet grasp this never-ending war of wills over the Second Amendment will never subside until both sides understand their need for or abhorrence of guns become less important if they’d seriously address the need for adequate police funding & training to keep us all safe regardless. Meanwhile, the criminals & mentally ill keep killing & the underfunded cops & courts keep chasing after the duck hunters among us. Didn’t Wyatt Earp keep things calm in Tombstone with his Colt revolver & shotgun, at least, until the OK Corral shootout triggered by a “dispute” with 5 outlaws over the town’s gun carry ban? How did that work out?

Davd Soul