Adventures of pistol-packing Peter

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September 17, 2008

Dwain Walden The Moultrie Observer Wed Sep 17, 2008, 11:13 PM EDT

It’s apparent that much of our society romances fire power.

Gun issues are right up there with abortion, free speech and separation of church and state.

A new law revision being proposed for Georgia would allow concealed handguns almost anywhere — bars, ballgames, churches, restaurants etc. This is a follow-up to a recently law passed. It takes away just about all the restrictions concerning packing heat at “public gatherings.”

I’ve never eaten food so bad at a restaurant that I wanted to shoot the cook. I have had some food so uncooked that I wanted to shoot the meat, though. But I just stabbed it with my fork and sent it back to the kitchen.

And I’ve never heard music so bad that I wanted to shoot the choir nor sermons so long that I wanted to shoot the preacher. I have, however, heard a few sermons so long that I wanted to write a note on a paper airplane and sail it up front.

So far I haven’t felt the need to carry a concealed weapon. I have noticed that some folks are reluctant to cross the street with me at a busy intersection, but I don’t think I would have time to shoot out the tires anyway.

Now let me be clear. I am a gun owner. I am a hunter. (I only hunt what I’m going to eat,) But I do believe there is a necessary tandem in gun ownership. The other particle is common sense.

Even in Tombstone, town marshal Virgil Earp adopted a no-gun-toting policy.

I have no problem with background checks before buying a handgun. Heck, I waited seven days before I received my first baseball glove from Sears and Roebuck.

So I asked myself this question: Do I want to be in a restaurant, at a ballgame or in a church with pistol-packing Peter? How do I know he can safely handle a gun?

There’s a popular bumper sticker that says: “Gun control is hitting what you aim at.” That’s a cute saying. But within that short sentence is a lot of unintended food for thought. Handguns are not that accurate in the first place. You’ve got to be really good or really lucky at hitting a target at any distance with a handgun. So if you are not hitting your target, you are hitting something else. Now let’s just say someone charges into the church and starts firing away. (It happened recently but it’s not a regular occurrence.) If someone is packing a gun, could we be sure that he could take out the assailant without hitting three or four deacons? And given the animosity that sometimes prevails even within church parameters, could we be sure the deacons got it accidentally? Just kidding there. I have that right as a Baptist.

I’ve heard of guys wildly firing three shots into the ground and into the woods when a deer surprised them. It’s called buck fever. Their trigger finger and their brain were not synchronized.

When any of these kinds of issues comes to the forefront, there typically is some irony to be considered. For instance, some towns in Georgia have ordinances where you can’t sell alcohol in a totally nude strip joint. In other words, someone has decided that it is dangerous to mix alcohol and to get naked in the same room.

So if that logic is sound, then wouldn’t it also be dangerous to mix alcohol and a concealed handgun?

Maybe I’m missing some logic here. Let me know if you think so.

(Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer, 985-4545. E-mail: dwain.walden@gaflnews.com)

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