American Sniper Author Killed http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/us/chris-kyle-american-sniper-author-reported-killed.html?hp .
I am sure many people have heard of the Darwin Awards. The late Chris Kyle should be nominated for his successful efforts at removing one more stupid person from the gene pool. Chris Kyle, famous ex Navy Seal and author was killed on a shooting range by a mentally ill veteran. Here is a quote from the NY Times article.
“Mr. Kyle, author of the best selling book “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” was with a struggling former soldier on just such an outing on Saturday, hoping a day at a shooting range would bring some relief, said a friend, Travis Cox”
One wonders what he was thinking. Perhaps he could have learned a lesson from Newtown, CT. There a woman took her mentally ill son to a gun range and made sure he learned all about weapons. The boy returned the favor by killing her and murdering 25 other people. Kyle was a vocal opponent of any effort at gun control saying that the founding fathers had the same weapons as the military. I would guess he favored everyone having an rpg at home. Kyle perhaps forgot the adage that we all reap what we sow. Well, is this case he was reaped out of existence.
In the US, and elsewhere, most rights come with restrictions. The preamble to the constitution clearly states that one of its goals was to “… secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. Clearly liberty is a most basic right, yet we restrict it. We register mechanical modes of transport at the state level and demand that a user have a license. Nobody seems upset by that. The laws make practical sense. Automobiles are inherently dangerous. Not only do we restrict speeds, we demand that users purchase liability insurance. Yet, few people talk about how this restricts freedom. Perhaps because this is because most of this done at the state level. Perhaps this is because it isn’t a right expressly written into the constitution or the amendments. Not all regulations are state ones, we have seen attempts at federal control. We have national safety regulations. Those certainly restrict freedom, but we have seen anything like the noise we have on gun control. Over time those restrictions have made automobiles much safer in the US and in countries the follow as similar legal regime.
In the US gun control advocates would like to eliminate access to military style weapon and to high capacity magazines. They would also like to eliminate loopholes that allow many gun purchases to avoid a background check. Personally I think all firearms should be registered at the state level and all gun ownership transfers be recorded, much like automobile titles are registered. In MN where I live almost all boats must be registered, yet nobody assumed Minnesota is wishing to confiscate boats. If I can believe the articles I read, most guns used in crime aren’t stolen. They are either purchased from a private dealer or purchased in a straw purchase (a purchase where the nominal buyer is not going to be the user). That happened in Webster NY. We need to make sure gun owners don’t sell or give away their guns to criminals or the mentally ill.
Would that stop all violent crime, no, but it would be a start to controlling access to weapons by those who mean us harm.
