An article in today's NY Times talks about the difficulty the little Connecticut town of Newtown has had with controlling firearms within it's own town borders. Apparently, there are two "legal" firing ranges, and several ad-hoc ranges that have become the subject of controversy and to no-one's surprise the support of gun-rights group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which seems to be located right there in Newtown.
So what has left me speechless? This quote from the article made by one of the owners of one of the ad-hoc firing ranges:
“Guns are why we’re free in this country, and people lose sight of that when tragedies like this happen,” he said. “A gun didn’t kill all those children, a disturbed man killed all those children.”
There's the mindset of the opponent to reasonable gun laws. That somehow we're free (to be terrified to send our kids to school or go to the mall?) because GunZ! And the second part (my emphasis) that the guns did not kill those kids, that a crazy person did...that line of thinking just has to come to an end. Those kids were killed by a gun that could shoot quickly and efficiently, the way a soldier in combat requires, there is no other justification for those weapons.
*Update, changed the title at the suggestion of a commenter. I think it's more appropriate. *