Tuning In and Turning Off

Thus far, 2011 has been rather uneventful on a personal level.  Shiloh is still with us (mostly because I'm living under the hope of somehow getting she and Tabby to a place where they can be under one roof) and she's recovering from her recent "getting fixed and chipped" surgery.  It finally snowed a decent amount here (last night) and we've been spending our down time taking inventory of "our stuff" for insurance purposes.  All in all, though, it's been pretty uneventful.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for things being uneventful for the general population.  With all that has happened in Arizona in the past few days, it wasn't shocking that the topic on the NPR show I was listening to on the radio was guns and gun control and the rights the population has in regards to guns and gun control.  I won't share all of what I heard, or thought, while I listened but I will share this:

It seems that the handgun ... a Glock ... used in this latest tragedy was, at one point, limited by law to have no more than 10 rounds per magazine - which is to say that one can fire 10 bullets without reloading.  But, since the early part of the last decade, that law expired and magazines could be purchased that had 33 rounds.  (Keep in mind that this is a very quick-firing gun and that one could easily use all 33 rounds in 90 seconds, as demonstrated in Arizona).  The radio show asked the guests to give a non-predatory situation where having a handgun that fired more than 30 bullets in under 90 seconds would be more useful than one that fired 10 shots in the same time and the guests went silent.

And then, as if on cue, the representative from the NRA spoke up and reminded the listeners that real life situations are so frequently NOT like what is shown on television or the movie screens, that it very rarely takes just a single shot to stop a burglar invading your home, that not every bullet finds its intended target ...

I turned off the radio.

Nineteen people were shot, more than a dozen were wounded, and six were killed.  The individual responsible was stopped only because he was in the midst of switching from his now-empty magazine to a full one.  While it is true that a disturbed person hell-bent on violence will find a way, it's not too much of a leap to wonder if the magazine size law had never changed, would those same people still be involved or injured or dead?

It seems to me that if John Q. Public wants to exercise his right to carry a weapon, he'd better be a good enough shot to stop an intruder in 10 shots, 'cause I dunno if I want him to be shooting at all otherwise.