Baby on board

Fogg (writing on Libby Spencer's blog, ) takes aim at the overhype spewing from both poles of the political spectrum and very correctly notes that the foofaraw does nothing to solve any problems. As the good Capt. correctly observes, the quickest and easiest means of increasing the cost of anything is to whisper the word... "BAN".

Have all the miscellaneous and ballyhooed safety regulations done anything? Mandatory trigger locks, microstamping of firing pins, loaded chamber indicator and magazine disconnect regulations? No. Has there been an increase in the murder by firearm rate as is being said? No. It's lower than it was in the 1950's. The fear is oversold. Much of what is being proposed can be no more effective in protecting school children than those stupid, yellow Baby on Board signs people put on their cars in the '70s. It's just there for the "I hate guns" people.

The hyperbole of both sides represents just how frightened we are and how easily it is for fringe elements to take advantage of that fear. The left loonies are frightened of the right-wing radicals, and the right is frightened of the rest of the world. This isn't anything new. This kind of thinking harkens as far back as our second president and the implementation of the Alien & Sedition acts of 1798. 214 years later and we still find ourselves scampering about like headless chickens.

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