Our View: In search of sensibility on gun laws

Josey1

Our View: In search of sensibility on gun laws It is hard to imagine parties more apart than on the issue of gun control and gun ownership.Clearly there must be middle ground wide enough to drive a tractor-trailer through, a gap separating law-abiding gun owners from those who would deny them their basic constitutional right of gun ownership.Or separating your basic law-abiding gun owner from those who believe they hold an unfettered right to brandish about any kind of weapon anywhere they might please.Add to this latter group, apparently, the Tennessee Firearms Association, and specifically its call to permit the swelling number of Tennesseans holding gun permits to walk into restaurants where alcohol is served toting a concealed weapon, or to bring guns onto school property so long as they are locked in a vehicle and held for a "legitimate purpose."John Harris of the state Firearms Association believes that restrictions should be relaxed because gun-permit holders have shown they are responsible.Some things simply do not mix. Alcohol and driving is one. Alcohol and carrying concealed weapons into establishments where alcohol is served is another.There is, in both cases, a presumption of risk. If legislators cannot anticipate those risks and act accordingly to make it more difficult for people to kill or injure themselves and others, then what is the purpose of legislators and of laws? And what imaginable "legitimate purpose" can be served by bringing firearms onto school property, even where locked inside a vehicle? How soon do some forget the senseless carnage on school grounds across the country?But the best question yet: How many of those nearly 100,000 Tennesseans obtaining concealed-and-carry permits during the last few years have already abandoned most hope that the state can protect them? A chilling prospect; and a invitation to lawlessness that can become self-fulfilling prophecy. http://www.oakridger.com/stories/010302/opE_0103020033.html