I write a lot about South Carolina, the place where my sister has chosen to live. As a peaceful person, I find it difficult to imagine her choosing to live in a place where violence is celebrated to the point of the state government passing laws that encourage people to carry guns in bars and where a candidate for Senate recently raffled off an assault rifleto attract attention to his campaign.
The story in Westchester,where my brother Hugh Schwartz lives, is different. I don’t think Westchester has laws that encourage people to go into bars with guns at their hips. I also suspect suburban gentry drive around with shotguns in the back of a pickup ..something we see here in Seattle. Guns in Westchester are likely a quieter affair, hidden in people’s homes.
I don’t know what these people think they would do with the guns. If their purpose were frightening potential thieves, then one would think they would like to have a sign outside warning that there is a lethal weapon inside. Apparently that is not the case since there is an ongoing lawsuit resulting from an effort by a local newspaper to identify people who do have guns in their homes.
I find this frightening because it is safe to assume that a significant portion of people in Westchester suffer from the kinds of neuroses that have led to misuse of guns in so many suburban communities around the country. Gun laws can not protect us from people like that … neurosis is not a crime, not definable as insanity.
These neurotics do not hear voices or fear Russians circling above in black helicopters. We will not know of the problems these people have until one day, angry at themselves, at a neighbor, or a relative .. the gun goes off.
It seems to me that people who feel a need to own a gun ought to give the rest of us fair warning.
New York – Putnam County says it’ll keep the (news)paper from getting its” hands on individual’s personal information.”
Putnam’s statement came a day after a judge ruled pistol permit records sought by the Journal were subject to disclosure.
(Even though) the judge ruled that eligible gun owners were permitted under state law to exempt their names from a public database, Putnam County says publishing the information creates “a dangerous road map for those with criminal intent.”