An honest man

Let's give columnist Donald Kaul of the Des Moines Register special credit for his honesty. Res ipsa loquitur:

Here, then, is my “madder-than-hell-and-I’m-not-going-to-take-it-anymore” program for ending gun violence in America:

• Repeal the Second Amendment, the part about guns anyway. It’s badly written, confusing and more trouble than it’s worth. It offers an absolute right to gun ownership, but it puts it in the context of the need for a “well-regulated militia.” We don’t make our militia bring their own guns to battles. And surely the Founders couldn’t have envisioned weapons like those used in the Newtown shooting when they guaranteed gun rights. Owning a gun should be a privilege, not a right.

• Declare the NRA a terrorist organization and make membership illegal. Hey! We did it to the Communist Party, and the NRA has led to the deaths of more of us than American Commies ever did. (I would also raze the organization’s headquarters, clear the rubble and salt the earth, but that’s optional.) Make ownership of unlicensed assault rifles a felony. If some people refused to give up their guns, that “prying the guns from their cold, dead hands” thing works for me.

• Then I would tie Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, our esteemed Republican leaders, to the back of a Chevy pickup truck and drag them around a parking lot until they saw the light on gun control.

And if that didn’t work, I’d adopt radical measures. None of that is going to happen, of course. But I’ll bet gun sales will rise.

Yeah, I'll bet they would rise. In fact, they already have. And for what it's worth, at least Kaul didn't threaten Messrs. Boehner and McConnell with the Sammy Johns treatment. So we should be thankful for that.

Meanwhile, Mitch Berg gives Kaul the what-for over at his place, including le mot juste concerning Kaul's call for prying:

Mr. Kaul; you are welcome to try.  Start with me.  Bring friends.  You’ll need ‘em.  Maybe 14 or 15 of ‘em.

Somehow, when it comes to revenge fantasies, I suspect Mr. Kaul is more Charles Nelson Reilly than Charles Bronson, so I don't think Mitch has much to worry about.