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Saturday Night Specials
Mar. 19th, 2008 12:02 amWhen I was growing up, DC was a violent place. According to my history teacher in my senior year in high school, it was the murder capital of the world if you went by killings per capita. The M Street serial killer was around and the K Street rapist -- who went after men in what was then center for prostitution.
Most of the murders though, and my criminology classes in college bore this out for murder in general, were domestic -- at least in the sense that the killer and the victim knew each other. Many were over drugs or other crimes, but most were heat of passion (bar fight) complicated by too much to drink on a Saturday night.
The law that will be examined by the Supreme Court this week was passed when I was 15, but the city had been fighting for it at least since I was ten. It wasn't that people were carrying these small, concealable handguns, though I don't doubt some were, it was that they were available on the street corners for as little as $14. Too often we heard news stories about someone leaving a bar, coming back within a quarter hour, and shooting the person he'd been arguing with. Often, the killer ended up dead too. These guns blew apart because they were poorly put together. The street dealers would take pieces from different weapons and fit them as best they could, and bystanders were lucky if they didn't have shrapnel wounds.
I believe in the second amendment. I have relatives who would not have survived the winters of the great depression without a) home canning and b) a rifle to shoot whatever game they could. Venison was a rare treat, and duck was licensed game. They ate squirrel and raccoon with their preserved tomatoes and lima beans.
My problem is that the only meat a handgun will kill is human, and we tend to frown on eating that.
The person who brought the suit argues a right to protect his home. I'm fine with that. Use a rifle or a shotgun. They're a lot scarier and are less likely to be taken to school by the kids.
The argument is always that if we take away the handguns only the criminals will have them. Maybe that's true. But according to a story in yesterday's Washington Post, criminals prefer larger well made handguns. When the Saturday Night specials were finally banned, the murder rate in DC dropped precipitately.
I hope that the Supremes find a way to rule that will allow some weapons to be banned without infringing the more general right.
Most of the murders though, and my criminology classes in college bore this out for murder in general, were domestic -- at least in the sense that the killer and the victim knew each other. Many were over drugs or other crimes, but most were heat of passion (bar fight) complicated by too much to drink on a Saturday night.
The law that will be examined by the Supreme Court this week was passed when I was 15, but the city had been fighting for it at least since I was ten. It wasn't that people were carrying these small, concealable handguns, though I don't doubt some were, it was that they were available on the street corners for as little as $14. Too often we heard news stories about someone leaving a bar, coming back within a quarter hour, and shooting the person he'd been arguing with. Often, the killer ended up dead too. These guns blew apart because they were poorly put together. The street dealers would take pieces from different weapons and fit them as best they could, and bystanders were lucky if they didn't have shrapnel wounds.
I believe in the second amendment. I have relatives who would not have survived the winters of the great depression without a) home canning and b) a rifle to shoot whatever game they could. Venison was a rare treat, and duck was licensed game. They ate squirrel and raccoon with their preserved tomatoes and lima beans.
My problem is that the only meat a handgun will kill is human, and we tend to frown on eating that.
The person who brought the suit argues a right to protect his home. I'm fine with that. Use a rifle or a shotgun. They're a lot scarier and are less likely to be taken to school by the kids.
The argument is always that if we take away the handguns only the criminals will have them. Maybe that's true. But according to a story in yesterday's Washington Post, criminals prefer larger well made handguns. When the Saturday Night specials were finally banned, the murder rate in DC dropped precipitately.
I hope that the Supremes find a way to rule that will allow some weapons to be banned without infringing the more general right.
