28 January 2013

Bang bang, the author shot me down

Reasons offered by THE PASSAGE's Justin Cronin in defense of his gun ownership in today's New York Times:

  1. I like guns.
  2. I enjoy learning about them. 
  3. I grew up pretending to have them. 
  4. I need to protect my family because no one else will, even though "I am aware that, statistically speaking, a gun in the home represents a far greater danger to its inhabitants than to an intruder."
  5. This one time, I was in a hurricane and wished I had had a gun. (To shoot the storm with?)
  6. Everybody else in Texas (where Cronin lives) has one. 
  7. It's okay because I don't like the NRA either. 
  8. It's okay because I'm not a Republican.
  9. It's okay because I am in favor of some regulations.
  10. My daughter and I bonded over them this one time.
  11. It's unrealistic to hope or express the desire for a world with no guns in it. 
  12. People on Facebook who want to get rid of guns are meanie name-callers. 
  13. My wife says it's OK. 

2 comments:

Henry said...

I Googled "Justin Cronin NYTimes" in hopes of someone explaining his Op-Ed, because 'Maybe I missed something, ANYthing,' I thought.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who found his piece ridiculous and pointless. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this summary. I wanted to appreciate Justin's piece. But Nancy Lanza had many of the same fears as he has. And then when you have an unbalanced child--? Who up to now has not shown violent tendencies, but who--like Justin's daughter--likes to prove his competence at the shooting range--? Remember how everyone blamed her?