Gun Slingers

Gun Slingers

Yesterday, January first, Texas became the forty-sixth state to enact a law allowin' people to openly carry guns in hip or shoulder holsters legally. In one fell swoop they've taken a giant leap back to 1871, which was the last time this was legal. Coincidentally, that was the same year the NRA an' the Ku Klux Klan was formed. I done some readin' up on this an' it appears the only reason for these bans was to keep guns outa the hands o' black people an' Indians. Well it was the advent of manufacturin' the Saturday Night Special that prompted this. That was one o' them cheap repeater pistols that everybody could afford; like Indians an' black people. Well, ya can see the trouble that would cause amongst the rulin' whites, can't ya? So in their infinite wisdom they set up the NRA so's they could continue to make arms, an' the Ku Klux Clan so's they could continue to hang black people an' Indians for any or no particular reason at all.

A number of years ago I was talkin' to a guy from Sioux City Iowa. I can't remember how we got into the discussion about race relations but he was saying how nervous the white folks were in a place where ninety percent of the population is black. Hm. I wonder why that could be.

Well so now ya got a new bunch o' gun slingers wanderin' around with their weapons hung on their hips or other places, ready to draw on anybody what gets in their road. Conversely, ya got another supply o' guns out there that the bad guys can get their hands on to use on their owners an' others. Last year there was some thirty-three thousand people in the U.S. died of gun related activity. Percentage wise that ain't too bad, but still, thirty-three thousand people is a whole village, specially if they include you an' your family. An' families who have lost loved ones don't much count percentages. They don't alleviate the grief.

Quite frankly, I don't see the difference between strollin' around Kandahar or Baghdad an' Chicago or New York. There's killers everywhere. An' the land o' the free an' the home o' the brave has a whole new meanin'. Much as the people in the Middle East would love ridin' around on Arabian horses slicin' off infidel heads with scimitars an' spears, Americans would love to step back into the time of the wild west, their guns ablazin'. Well, now they done it, an' they can keep it. I'd just as soon never go to either the Middle East, or to the U.S. It appears they're just diggin' theirselves a deeper hole they'll never climb out of at this rate. At least that's how it seems to me from up here on the top shelf.

Just sayin'.