After Waco Shootout, Know What Texas Needs? More Guns EVERYWHERE!

On Sunday, Waco, Texas played host to a guns-and-knives ballet performance by the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs, leaving 9 dead, 18 injured, and 170 in jail. On Monday, the Texas Senate debated HB 910, a bill that would allow open carry of handguns just about everywhere in the state. Also up for consideration is SB 11, which would allow concealed carry of weapons on college campuses. There is no connection at all between the shootout and the pending legislation, because shut up is why.

A reporter for The Guardian was met largely with scoffing disbelief when she asked gun lobbyists -- who had praised the bills as "great bills by great bill authors" -- whether the Waco shootout might be a reason to reconsider expanding the number of people packing heat:

“Why would criminals and criminal misuse of a firearm impact a commonsense issue currently in all but five states?” said Alice Tripp, the legislative coordinator for the Texas State Rifle Association, via email. Her answer to whether legislators would be affected by the deadly events in Waco: “So no.”

You silly English newspaper! Why on earth would a lot of hoodlums shooting each other up have anything to do with regular Americans exercising their Constitutional rights? OK, sure, the reporter, Jessica Glenza, is American, but she sure asks a lot of dumb questions about guns like some foreign type would. The nation's premier gun lobby was similarly dismissive:

A spokesman for the National Rifle Association said that he didn’t see a connection between Texas’s legislation and the outlaw gangs’ behavior, and said he had nothing to add to the debate.

No reasonable person would think there's a connection between easy availability of firearms and the occasional outlaw-biker shootout? Regular people need guns to protect themselves from crime and tyrannical government overreach, and aren't going to be getting into any massive shootouts in a restaurant parking lot. Instead, they're far more likely to commit suicide, shoot someone over something stupid,   blow away a family member in a tragic accident, or leave their gun somewhere a child can get to it. 

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Heavens, there's no reason a freak occurrence like a biker war should scare anyone into thinking that anything's going to change our cherished traditions of killing each other in the usual stupid ways.

[ The Guardian ]