Nuts With Handguns

by William Prendergast

Everyone is reeling from the horrific mass murder that just took place at Virginia Tech. But, as with Columbine, no one is going to do anything to prevent the next such shooting incident. Americans have a fascination with handguns. The kid who went nuts and started gunning people down had no prior history of violent behavior; there seems to have been nothing that should have prevented him from legally obtaining the Glock pistol he used to kill all those innocent people.

I don't know what the NRA types who promote easy access to firearms propose as a solution. More handguns, I suppose. Their logic seems to be that this type of tragedy can be dealt with or at least minimized by having more people carry weapons--so that they can gun down people who are carrying weapons once they begin to use them.

And then we have incidents like this one, which just appeared on the wire two hours ago:

Man sentenced over cat rescue shooting
2 hours, 36 minutes ago

KINGMAN, Ariz. - A man who shot at firefighters after they refused to get his cat out of a tree has been sentenced to five months in jail. Jeffrey Francis Cullen, 59, of Kingman, was also ordered to be on intensive probation for five years as part of his sentence, handed down Friday by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Robert R. Moon...

...Cullen called the Hualapai Valley Fire Department on Aug. 17 and reported a tree fire, but once the three-person crew arrived, Cullen told them he wanted his cat rescued from the tree.

Fire Department spokeswoman Sandy Edwards said a battalion chief told Cullen to call animal control or to wait for the cat to get hungry and come down.

The response apparently incensed Cullen, who went inside his home, got a small handgun and came out shooting.

The firefighters fled, taking with them a 12-year-old boy who had come to see their fire truck. None was struck.

..."Firemen, they shouldn't have to be subject to that," Moon told Cullen before handing down the sentence.

Cullen admitted to deputies after his arrest that he had been drinking.

"My main thing is going to stay off of alcohol," Cullen told the judge.