Guns

As you may have heard, in the latest in a much-too-long series of similar events, a gunman walked into a Fed Ex facility in Kennesaw, Georgia.  Reportedly loaded with guns and looking like Rambo, he wounded several victims before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide.

You might remember Kennesaw, Georgia as the town that in 1982 passed an ordinance requiring the head of every household to own a gun.  I doubt there's a better armed town in Georgia, one of the better armed states in this not-exactly-unarmed country.  Despite all this, a bad man with a gun still managed to do bad things in this town.

What you may not have heard is that last week a man carrying a gun stalked a children's baseball game in Forsyth County, Georgia.  "He's just walking around [saying] 'See my gun? Look, I got a gun and there's nothing you can do about it.' He knew he was frightening people. He knew exactly what he was doing," a witness told the press.  

Forysth County deputies questioned the man and found that he had a permit for the handgun. Authorities said that since the man made no verbal threats or gestures, they could neither arrest him nor ask him to leave the park.  However, concerned parents grew so alarmed by the man's behavior that they brought the game to a halt when he declined to leave the parking lot overlooking the baseball field.

So this is our NRA-sponsored brave new world - a state where armed men can intimidate children in a ballpark with a gun and the police have no authority to stop him, and despite all the guns, a suicidal madman can still walk into a Fed Ex and shoot the workers before killing himself.

With Georgia's new guns-everywhere rule and increased stand-your-ground rights, I don't see things getting better anytime soon.