More Outrage

Today is the first day of ango, but the way things are going, even though what I want to talk about are polar bears and walruses, it seems that this blog may devolve into nothing more that a catalog of reasons to get out of Georgia.


Today's outrage is controversial legislation signed into law yesterday by Republican Governor Sonny Purdue that would allow folks with licenses to carry concealed firearms to bring their guns into restaurants and onto MARTA trains. The bill was opposed by representatives of the Georgia Restaurant Association, by MARTA officials and by Atlanta's Democratic Mayor Shirley Franklin on the grounds that allowing guns in restaurants and on buses and trains would pose a threat to public safety, but Governor Pudue caved in to pressure from the National Rifle Association and other groups, who had made passage of this law in Georgia and other states a priority.


Now, sure, the constitution gives us the right to bear arms, but stretching that right to be able to conceal those arms in public places is a bit of a stretch. Proponents claim that those with concealed weapons will be fully licensed and registered, so what's the harm? But that ignores the problem that criminals might decide to bypass that whole licensing and registration hassle and pack a gun anyway. And if said criminal were involved in criminal activity in a restaurant or bus or train, (s)he would have to assume at least the possibility that others in there are strapped too, and if you put yourself in that criminal's shoes, would you be more or less prone to violence given that assumption?


Now put on top of that Georgia's fondness for capital punishment and its gridlocked traffic and associated road rage, populated by armed and dangerous, swastika-mowing, Obama-as-Curious-George redneck residents, and I ask you: what could possibly go wrong?

But I could see I'm now hopelessly off-track to ever turn this posting around to a discussion of polar bears and walruses, much less ango, so those topics will have to wait until another day. See what this place is doing to me?