Right of Glock

I find Gail Collins article “School of Glock” to be very interesting. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/opinion/10collins.html?_r=1&ref=opinion)

With the numerous school shootings over the last couple of decades guns are a hot topic.

This is the first time I have heard about a link between gun rights and health reform.  Obviously Gail is writing to a pro-gun control and health reform audience.

She mentions a bill up for consideration in Florida. It would fine a doctor up to 5 million dollars for simply asking if the patient owns a gun. The bill is supposedly about not allowing insurance companies to raise premiums in a mandated health care system for states. Gail points out that there is already protection in the health reform for this very issue. I tend to agree with her that the Republican Party is perpetuating an irrational fear about health care.

I don’t know that I completely agree with her point of view on guns. She implies that the Republican Party has formed their gun rights stance around the idea that the country would have less problems if there were more guns. Although I am not Republican, I come from a family that is. Many are members of the National Rifle Association. They fundamentally believe that it is their right to bear arms. However, most of them do not feel guns could solve our nation’s problems. They feel the government having more control over how they carry and what kind of gun they carry would be to our nations detriment. It would be the muffling of a long standing tradition and right of Americans.

I have been around guns all of my life and even though I at this time do not carry one, if I did, I would know how to use it. So would many young Texans and Americans that I know. I wonder how much time she has spent in the country where family’s hunt for their food. I wonder if she has spent any time around guns.  I don’t think guns will fix all of our problems but the notion that our nation is safer with fewer guns makes no sense to this Texas raised gal.