I sat this morning.....gazing over over a couple of newspapers and noticed this one odd piece. Two senators (Manchin of West Virginia and Toomey of Pennsylvania)....Democrat and Republican....want to start up a new gun-control bill....but ONLY if there's 60 votes sitting out there. If there aren't obviously sixty votes.....why waste the effort? So, they've got their staffs walking around and trying bean-count votes.
What kind of bill? Well....the ONLY thing they'd say is that they want to make a law to keep guns away from crazy people (note: mental illness).
If you walk into any church, fishing resort, golf club, beer joint, or gas station and bring this topic up.....generally ninety percent of folks would readily agree....they sure don't want their nutcase nephew 'Robert', or crazy Uncle Leroy, or screwball neighbor Dorthy, or goofy boyfriend Lester, or insane daughter Mandy, or nutcase sister Leslie....having a gun.
Yeah, ten-percent of folks still voice that nutcase folks ought to have the right to guns.....go figure. After they get shot or some nut at the gas station pulls a gun on them....then they get smart and realize nutcases ought not have guns.
The problem I see here though....once you open the 'crazy-in-Bama' situation.....why stop at guns?
If your lunatic sister is certified as crazy......how can we allow her to have a driver's license, register to vote, get a bank loan, have a pilot license, get married, or operate a lawn-mower?
If your psycho cousin is a certified nut.....how can we allow him to purchase dynamite, a chain saw, or purchase legal narcotics at the drug store?
If your wacky neighbor is a certified nut.....how can we allow her to own a sword, keep up a snake collection, or carry a sledge hammer in their car-trunk?
You see, these two guys are opening up a Pandora's Box of sorts. Why limit crazy folks to just no guns? How can you allow them roam freely around the neighborhood, with a chainsaw in their possession or marrying some other nutcase gal three hours after meeting them?
How many certified nuts are there in America? Unknown. No one has ever sat down and really counted. If you asked any guy from Bama.....we'd give you a humble number of three-percent of folks in Bama being certified as 'nuts'. In California.....it might be more. In Oregon, it might be a lot more. It'd require a judge to sign the paperwork, but we'd be fairly sure that three-percent of our Alabama relatives and neighbors were nutcases.
Would the senators then be willing to take the full situation, and just do the right thing? I'm guessing "NO". They wouldn't want to stop crazy folks from marrying, carrying dynamite, or having rattlesnake collections. They wouldn't want to limit a guy on the three-thousand freedoms that most regular folks have.
It's a nice thought that they have, and I'm guessing they are hoping that sixty folks will stand with them on this. But it's mostly just a fraud if you ask me.
