Inbox: Guns and Apes

A Piece of their Mind 

This is an important exposé [“The Gun,” WW, Aug. 2, 2011] on the need for better controls.  Why on earth would a seller want to take the chance that his gun is being sold to a criminal, someone with a restraining order, a warrant out for their arrest, or someone who is mentally ill?  Requiring a background check for all sales is an obvious fix for this massive problem. 

And for those pro-gun folks who insist that another law won't stop these sales, I say you're jaded and just being obstinate. By that flawed philosophy, one shouldn't have any laws at all since criminals will always break them.

No, having mandatory background checks for all sales, whether on the street or on Craigslist, will hold the seller accountable and prosecutable, forcing the criminal to get an accomplice and driving up costs of these illicit gun sales, with minimal cost increase to legal gun buyers.  This will allow prosecution of the gun seller as well, and they won't simply be able to claim ignorance.

Beyond mandatory background checks, requiring reporting of stolen or missing guns (as Portland does) or mandating gun registration allows for tracking of guns from a point of origin, which will hold owners accountable and make it much more difficult for illegal gun trafficking.

"Baldr Odinson"


But we do have laws—laws that appear to be poorly enforced—so rather than enacting new laws, how about enforcing what we have? I would also argue that most of the guns that you can buy on the street were stolen, not legally purchased. I know as a gun owner I would not want to have a stolen gun anywhere near me as it is an unnecessary headache.

I sometimes wonder about this when I trade with others—unlike the writer of this piece I do not intentionally go out and buy from suspicious people. Even though it is private party transfer, which does not go through a FFL [federal firearms license] here, I want nothing to do with a suspicious activity that can take away my rights—I am pretty sure that most lawful gun owners feel the same way.

"da_rube"


SIMIAN CINEMA

Gee, well I guess the hordes of professional and amateur reviewers at RottenTomatoes.com must not know what they are talking about... WW has proclaimed this movie (“Rise Against: Rise of the Planet of the Apes Reviewed,” wweek.com) banal. Oh well.  

And here I thought the characters were made sympathetic and engaging, so that you actually cared and felt it when good... and bad things happened to them.  And, I must have been imagining the fact that this one actually had a scientifically plausible line, unlike the earlier ape movies and so many others, but I'm only a scientist and engineer, not a paid f*ing writer at WW. 

So, please, don't see this movie.  We would not want to appear to not be as counter-culture cool as the WW crew.  Geez.

"Bud F."


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