I am a child of the sixties, teen of the seventies, adult of the eighties and now grandfather in the new millennium. I was a young man when pill bottles had snap on caps and seatbelts were an option. Smoking was cool and drunk driving was a sitcom plot handled by Deputy Fife when he locked up Otis Campbell in Mayberry every Saturday night.
Along with all the introductory ills mentioned, we thought seriously about taking cap guns out of the hands of our children and gave object lessons about how to handle a problem. Guns were considered a destructive necessary evil and were to be handled by those with need, the military, the police, hunters and of course Peter Gunn (for those under 50, great program, look it up) but I digress. The message was that even one life is worth the extra effort, regardless of cost or what regulation hurt businesses, life was precious. For the conservative hand ringers now saying to themselves, “what about abortion, you liberal hypocrite.” I hate to disarm your ideological rock throwing, but no one likes abortion! I have never sat around the fireplace or virtual café and toasted the decision by a woman who felt so overwrought no other solution was available. Not Saul Alinsky, Bill Ayers or Reverend Wright sit in the offices praising abortion. What they do have in common is staying out of the business of women, husbands, families and doctors, the very thing conservatives claim they want most, ‘government to mind their own business!’
The most strident liberals are not monsters who dream of plucking the wings off butterflies, but are as compassionate about loved ones and friends, as the flag waving, gun-toting, Bible carrying conservative( incidentally I carry a Bible to church too, yes me commie liberal, that I am). We designed safety caps for pill bottles, although the pharmaceutical industry complained (along with my grandmother and her arthritic hands). She realized that raising her grandchildren in safety was worth the inconvenience. GM, Chrysler and Libertarians complained bitterly that the right to fly through your windshield at 70 mph was a right that should not be infringed; sound familiar? The cool of cigarettes was exposed as a habit forming exercise that led many to their deaths. We removed television tobacco advertisements because of its mind numbing influence on the nation’s children.
Frequently the argument was used.” That if it saves just one life, it’s worth it.” Why did we abandon that idea? To every person who has lost a loved one to accidental prescription overdose, smoking or forgetting to buckle a seatbelt those laws may ring hollow. For the countless numbers who are hugging their sons, daughters, and mothers and fathers because they couldn’t get the pill bottle open, thought smoking is stupid or fastened a seatbelt, every life is precious. Guns are the new scourge. On average 88 men, women and children a day die, thirty-thousand a year, isn’t one of those lives precious enough to at least try to stem the flow of guns on the street? IF IT SAVES JUST ONE LIFE ISN’T IT WORTH IT?