Gun Day in the Senate

It's hard to measure how good or bad a day the Senate had yesterday in handling two bills - one to continue the assault weapon ban (good) and another that would have protected gun manufacturers from most types of lawsuits except in the case of manufacturing defects.

Bush doesn't want the assault weapon ban because Rove feels his constituency doesn't want it. So let's see what happens. Certainly Delay would keep it from going through the House.

As for the manufacturers, I'm divided. I have no admiration for people who manufacture anything that's best use is to shoot someone or something. While I am strongly opposed to guns, I'm willing to tolerate a free society in which responsible people can if they choose - although I personally can't understand it - own a gun they keep under lock and key.

Yet I also don't understand suing a gun manufacturer for the actions of what someone does with that gun. If you could have a suit that would end the manufacture of guns anywhere, I might join in.

But there are some problems with the logic of manufacturer suits, at least in my mind. For one, there are far more ways to hurt people and other living things than through the use of a gun. Do you sue the manufacturer of Andrea Yates' bathtub because she used it to kill her children? Do you sue the manufacturer of a car because some fool decided to drive his car into a tree to deliberately kill himself and his family?

Guns are unique, yes. The only reason to have them, to large degree, is to shoot them... or have the potential to do so. But the bigger problem isn't that a company exists that will make the product (unless they make it too freely available considering its inherent dangers). No, the real problem is that anyone wants a gun in the first place.

However, it is the ultimate responsibility of the person who commits the heinous act of shooting another being. Smith and Wesson didn't pull the trigger. Sure, there may be contributory guilt: a gun seller who deals under the table, someone who makes the gun otherwise available to someone else (a parent who leaves a loaded weapon within reach of a child, for example).