Today there are two interesting articles from Pennsylvania on guns:
Tragedy always a second away when anger comes with a gun
The sudden, sickening turn of events started last April 25 when Jayson Sack had the bad luck to go roll up his car windows -- sprinkling rain was forcing his family's Saturday evening picnic inside -- as a Saturn sedan came rolling across East 20th Street. A witness recalled Sack yelling at the driver to slow down. The bad luck was that the Saturn was driven by a 22-year-old cop wannabe with an attitude, a criminal justice degree and a .357 Magnum tucked in his pants. Trouble waiting to happen, in other words. Atkin got out of the car, pointed that pistol and snuffed the life of a 30-year-old father of two who loved sports and hot cars. A life that could have continued on if only Atkin had done the same. Like a lot of people these days, I routinely counsel my wife, myself and any young person who will listen to bow out of petty disputes with strangers rather than raise their voices or middle fingers. You never know what demons lurk in people's heads, and whether those demons have their fingers wrapped around a pistol or a knife. I'm a gun owner myself, and I harbor mixed feelings about the limits of gun rights and a general skepticism about gun control. But if I have a soft spot for anti-gun arguments, it has something to do with a young guy driving off to visit his mom on a spring evening with a large-caliber handgun stuffed in his shorts. Joel Atkin was carrying that pistol legally, right up until he used it to murder a man in the street for no reason. That's at the heart of the what-ifs in this case.
...Pennsylvania has more than 200 gun shows every year, a total exceeded only by Texas. Indeed, gun shows are a leading tourist attraction in the Lebanon Valley, which is hosting three this year. Tourist promotion officials estimate that each gun show will draw 6,000 visitors and generate between $2.5 million and $3 million for area businesses.
It was here in 2008 that a 30-year-old mother made national headlines by toting a gun to her daughter's soccer game. Last year the woman was shot and killed by her husband, who then took his own life.
