Larry Gross has a lot to get off of his chest. There are some things he’ll just never understand. And one of them, as he tells us in a recent cri de coeur in Cincinnati’s citybeat.com, is ‘gun people’. Larry doesn’t like ‘em. Not one little bit. And he’s not afraid to let you know about it…
I’m for gun control. Yes, I want to take away your gun. I believe only a few people should be allowed to have them…
He’d let the usuals keep their heaters, of course. Police, military. Maybe the occasional hunter. Thanks for the honesty, Larry. At least we know where you stand.
The only problem is, Larry doesn’t really know a lot about guns. Or gun people. He once gave the negative results of a consulting engagement to a business owner he knew to be carrying a gun in writing rather than in person “because it was better than running the risk of getting my brains blown out.”
Gun people: I don’t pretend to understand them. I don’t relate to people who carry guns, collect them or shoot them. To me, guns encourage violent behavior and are a danger to society.
I shot a gun once back when I was 11 or 12 years old. Living in the country, my father let me shoot his gun into a field. I remember the shot being loud and me falling down as the gun went off. It was scary.
I don’t want to play armchair psychologist, but I’ll stick my neck out and say Larry’s still scared of guns. And he’s pretty sure all that hooey about their being just a tool like a hammer or a wrench is a bunch of propaganda.
In urban society, guns kill people. I don’t go along with this bullshit that guns don’t kill people, that people kill people. If a regular citizen wasn’t allowed to carry a gun, then the temptation wouldn’t be there to pull the trigger when tempers flare.
But please don’t tell him about the nationwide decline in gun crime even while gun sales have skyrocketed. Facts can be inconvenient, especially when you hold such heartfelt beliefs about the ills of society.
At least Larry isn’t a hypocrite, though. He’s not one of those people who has a gun to protect himself but wants to prevent others from owning one. Larry doesn’t need a gun for protection. He prefers to use his cane, which is certainly his prerogative. And he doesn’t just whine about society’s ‘gun problem’, he comes to the table with a solution (in addition to confiscating them, of course), too.
We need to become a more civilized society. We need to respect life and not allow ways to damage it. Some people understand this, but some will never be able to figure this out — like that business owner I did consulting work for.
While risking self-exposure as one of those obtuse people who will never figure that out Larry, I’m glad we have a Constitution and laws (in most places, at least) that prevent people like you from confiscating guns from people like me. And until we’re able to lobotomize everyone and create that utopian society you long for, I’ll keep my guns, use them safely and protect myself and my family from the bad guys who don’t respect life and people like you who think they know what’s good for me.