New York, New York - Thoughts on Guns

People were riding the subway to work, to school, to visit family, doing the ordinary things one does on a random Tuesday morning at 8:30.  Then there was smoke.  Then there were gunshots.

Witnesses describe a short, round man wearing a hoodie, but no one seems to have video of him.  The security cameras in that station were not functional. Ten hours later, he's still on the loose.  

After I got done shaking off the initial shock - a normal, sunny day turns into a nightmare - I wondered how many of those people would get back on the subway to go home.

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Joe Biden used an Executive Order to ban the sale of unlicensed ghost gun kits, because sensible legislation on this issue is impossible on the Federal level.  

All the while, Giffords.org is having great success at the local and state level, and can take a lot of credit for the President's action this week.  

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Last week,  TBG and I had pancakes at a hole in the wall diner we hadn't visited since Pandemica.  We were almost finished when the burly guy with the NRA t-shirt stomped through to a table in the rear, his hand gun in a holster on his waist.

I will never understand the need to have a weapon at breakfast.  I just refuse to be that terrified of the world around me.

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That hole in the wall diner is in a strip mall that's anchored by a furniture store and an alternative high school.  There's a prepared meals shop and a nail salon and, much to my nephew's amazement when we took him there many years ago, a gun shop.

He made his mother take his picture with the storefront and its sign (GUNS  AMMO  OPEN) behind him.  

You don't see this in New Jersey, y'know!

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Perdita, niece extraordinary, lives in Brooklyn.  I texted to be sure that she wasn't on the subway this morning.  

Being the thoughtful and considerate and loving human that she is, she replied immediately.  She was in the park with her dog.

I'll leave you with that.  It's much more pleasant than guns.