Pocketful of polonium-210? No problem

In the post-Virginia Tech tragedy atmosphere of the last week, the most ardent defenders of the familiar gun manufacturers’ position -- as championed by the NRA -- which claims private citizens ought to be able to own whatever exotic firepower they can afford, fell back on their most basic spin/scam.

Thus, once again we are reading and hearing, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

It’s going to be interesting watching that convenient assertion/slogan stretched around the scary idea that even mentally ill people still have second amendment rights to own rapid-fire weapons that must be defended against all slippery slope suggestions to limit what they can legally buy in the name of self-defense or sport.

If we take the line of thinking of that simplistic slogan and begin to apply it to a few other situations it underlines the absurdity of it: Bombs strapped around terrorists’ waists don’t kill people, people kill people. Weaponized anthrax in the mail doesn’t poison postal workers, no, people poison postal workers. Giant sports utility vehicles don’t flip over way too easily, it’s people who flip them over way too easily.

In this world of denial and I want what I want, a dangerous thing isn’t dangerous. The danger is only in how certain people use those dangerous things. So, if I’ve got a pocketful of polonium-210, there’s no problem with that until I pour it into your Bloody Mary.