My cousin, who was murdered

Normally, I'm a huge fan of the Kossack community, but they tend to diverge greatly on the issue of guns. There was a front-paged diary yesterday about how we should just leave the gun issue alone, that it wasn't worth persuing after the conservative Roberts court overturned decades of legal precedent and struck down the Chicago gun ban.

I wrote a diary challenging that notion, recalling my cousin Laura and the great struggle I went through after losing her. She was such a sweet, innocent person, and -- having died in her late teens -- she barely had the chance to live her life. I hope people will check it out; we cannot cede this issue to the Roberts court and the NRA, not when so many lives are at stake.

Idiotic Policy at Boston Police Dept.

Apparently, leaders in the Boston Police force are so worried about terrorist attacks like the ones that happened in Mumbia, India, that they're arming patrol officers with semiautomatic, military-grade weaponry. Talk about the wrong priorities! Better theory? Bizarre leaders want new toys. I say let them retire.

Seriously, people should be fired over this, especially given the fact that it does nothing to help the *actual* terrorism going on in the city right now - the 70-80 people being murdered on the streets every year. Semiautomatic M16s won't stop or solve those murders; they may just prompt gangs to strengthen their arms. What's worked in the past has been getting the police and city to work with all facets of the community in crime prevention -- something the city, from all the sources I've talked to, has gotten away from in recent years. Anyone want to take a bet that all of these M16s would pay for a hefty chunk of whatever it would take to restart some of the programs that are actually effective in reducing the youth violence that's led to so many murders over the past few years?

It's one thing to have a well-prepared swat team, it's another to arm regular police officers and allow this culture of fear to continue to prompt idiotic high-ranking officers to ignore the actual terrorism going on in this city every week in favor of the imaginary scenarios that are about as likely to take place as a pig that flies. Boston has almost no threat of a coordinated attack -- and a couple of M16s won't protect us from one. In London, most of the cops don't even go around with guns -- and it's a city that's dealt with very-real terrorism for decades. Kudos to the two officers who had the courage to leak this critical information.

Update: Maybe they're worried about Mooninites?

Guns in Homes Keep Us Safe

Thankfully, the Muhse family were able to keep their home safe from that treacherous seven year old kid who accidentally stepped foot on their property.

Guns: Keeping American Families Safe

Like this one.

In a tragic turn for a violence-prone Boston family, 8-year-old Liquarry Jefferson was shot to death in his Roxbury apartment, and his relatives' initial account that armed intruders had gunned him down was a lie, police and city officials said last night.

Officials said a 7-year-old male cousin playing with a loaded gun accidentally shot Liquarry, a first-grader who loved basketball, pro wrestling, and pizza. His death early yesterday made him the city's youngest fatal shooting victim in five years.

Even if a gun is stored properly, it's far more likely that the gun will target a family member than a burglar. It's so sad that thousands of people have to die every year - and still, as a country, we haven't come to our senses yet. Hand guns have one purpose only: killing people, often deceptively. We don't need them; in fact, we're better off without them. Just as little Liquarry.

Yesterday's Podcast

Sadly, we didn't have Lynne yesterday, but Mike and I soldiered on and had a good show anyway. We talked about the DiMasi/Patrick fiasco and all those recent developments, as well as some on the 5th Congressional Race. Look for a special guest next week for that race. Furthermore, we spent a great deal of time talking about whether or not it was time to make gun control an issue again in America (and enthusiastically say yes, it is).

Mitt's Gun Problem

John Aravosis loves Mitt more than I do. He caught some great lines from the Mittster.

We have a gun in one of our homes. It's not owned by me, it's owned by my son, but I've always considered it sort of mine.

Anyone else snort smoothie out of their nose with that one? The orange-strawberry concoction burns sort of like the pains to which Mitt has gone to sound super-duper conservative for the super-duper redstate crowd. Seriously, I hope Republicans fall for that trap in the primary, because it's not going to happen in the general. The gun-totting, buy-beer-at-the-gas-station crowd isn't going to find his "[I joined the NRA] within the last year," but "I signed up for a lifelong membership" nonsense. Mitt being gun ho for guns is as credible as Dick Cheney's master weapon-wielding skillz. Would anyone feel safe hunting some doves with Mitt, either?