So now that the thoughts and prayers have begun to fade away, the politicians can begin posturing about voting some kind of law to control gun violence. And believe it or not, the only public official who seems to not only have a grasp on the reality of gun violence, but what to do about it, is the so-called ‘demented’ President of the United States.

              Joe was asked yesterday how he felt about the law which may get passed in Canada that will effectively end legal sales of handguns, or at least make it almost impossible for a law-abiding Canadian resident to buy such a gun.

              And to his credit, and to the discredit of just about every other member of both the GOP and Democrat(ic) Congressional caucuses in D.C., Joe hit the nail right on the head by saying that he didn’t want to ban all handguns, but only those guns which, as he put it, have no ‘rational’ or ‘sporting’ basis for being used. And his press secretary qualified this comment by saying that Joe was talking about guns which shoot a 9mm bullet or above.

              And what was the response to Joe’s comment from Fox News, which will no doubt now become the standard litany about gun-control from Joe Manchin and his new-found friends in the GOP? Fox actually had the balls to state, and I quote: “Handguns in 9mm are the most popular in the United States and are not considered “high-caliber” by most firearms experts.”

              Which ‘experts’ did Fox consult to come up with this load of sh*t? The 9mm round is only the most popular handgun ammunition for military use, the United States having switched from the 45-caliber round to the 9mm carried by all NATO forces back in 1976.

              The point is that everyone gets worried and concerned about gun violence when the media elevates a story like what happened last week at Uvalde to the front page, or the lead on the nightly, TV news. But every day somewhere around 260 men, women and children are killed or seriously injured in this country with guns, and a California law-enforcement study of the calibers in crime guns found that the 9mm round showed up more than 50 percent of the time.

              Nobody uses a 9mm, semi-automatic pistol which holds a magazine with sixteen rounds of military-grade ammunition and uses that kind of gun to shoot a bird out of a tree, or pop one into Bambi’s rear end. Poor Bambi.

              Guns that are designed to hold and fire 9mm ammunition are designed for one purpose – to kill. And I don’t mean Bambi. I mean you – and me.

              Now the gun industry and its political sycophants on both sides of the aisle can talk all they want about using a gun for self-defense. They can even say that Americans have a God-given ‘right’ to defend themselves with a gun because you might want to dispute the meaning of a Constitutional phrase, but who would dare argue with God?

              I would not-so-politely suggest that all these nincompoops who keep telling us they want to obey what God says about self-defense, should pack up and move to Iran. Then they can have daily discussions with the Almighty even though in Iran you can’t legally own a gun.

              Back in 1998 I went out to Buffalo, scalped a ticket in front of the football stadium, and went inside to watch the extraordinary Buffalo defensive tackle, Bruce Smith. The two guys sitting next to me were from Canada, and during halft[MW1] ime a small plane flew over the stadium pulling a banner that advertised a local gun shop.

              One of the guys from Canada pointed at the banner, laughed, and said, “We know we’re in the United States right now.”

              It’s time the United States caught up with the rest of the civilized world and stopped pretending that walking around with a semi-automatic pistol or an assault rifle is the same thing as going to the local supermarket and buying a loaf of bread.

              It’s not. And at least Joe Biden understands what this is all about.


 [MW1]E