Latina Williams, the Louisiana Technical College killer who
was living in her car, paranoid and delusional and giving her possessions away
in suicidal gestures, walked right into a New Orleans pawn shop and bought a
.357 revolver and a box of ammunition the day before the shootings. Hey, she
had rights. Jennifer Sanmarco, the
Goleta postal facility killer was also a legal gun owner. So were Terry
Ratzmann, the Milwaukee church service killer, Chai Vang the Wisconsin hunter
killer and Bart Ross, who killed a Chicago Federal judge's husband and mother.
Is there anyone who can't buy a
firearm?
Even criminals should have gun rights says the gun lobby.
When three major Florida law enforcement groups sought to tighten laws after
the Sun Sentinel reported concealed
weapon licenses issued to 1,400 probable felons (including a man who shot his
girlfriend as she cooked breakfast, a pizza deliveryman wanted for fatally
shooting a 15-year-old over a stolen order of chicken wings and six registered
sex offenders), NRA lobbyist Marion P. Hammer said, "When you begin taking
away the rights of people that you don't like, that's the slippery slope."
Of course when you leave laws on the books that let mental
cases go on rampages and amass arsenals, there is another slippery
slope--lawmakers and government officials themselves become victims. In recent
years a US district court judge, another US district court judge's mother and
husband, the mayor, public works director and two city council members of
Kirkwood, MO and Panama City school board officials have all been shooting
victims.
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