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So, Let's Ban ... Cars?
With emotions running high over the spate of shootings, bombings, and bomb threats at schools around North America, it's time for a little perspective. Imagine the following story:
COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) _ A man who told police he wanted to ``execute'' innocent children shot his way through a day care center
playground with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, killing two toddlers and injuring five people, authorities say.
``Why he picked yesterday, why he picked this school, why he picked these kids, we don't know,'' Lt. Ron Smith said Tuesday.
Steven Allen Abrams, 39, of Santa Ana was arrested for investigation of murder and assault with a deadly weapon after shooting his way
into the Southcoast Early Childhood Learning Center on Monday.
``I was going to execute these children because they were innocent,'' Abrams told detectives, according to Smith.
Every major news outlet would be all over this story, wouldn't they? There would be endless interviews
with parents, teachers, law enforcement, and anyone else remotely connected with the case. HCI would be screaming for the outright ban of all handguns, even louder than they are now. The NRA would be on
the defensive, trotting out their aging icon, Charlton Heston, in a desperate attempt to quash the inevitable emotional backlash. We would see President Clinton on TV calling for justice, calling for banning
handguns, calling for tougher measures against "those who senselessly murder our children".
So ... why didn't we see this outrage? Why didn't we see this outporing of emotion? Why didn't we
even hear about this story? Oh, it's a real story, all right - it happened almost exactly as written, on May 3, 1999. I just changed one small fact. The original story can be read at http://www.cnn.com/US/9905/04/calif.day.care.crash.ap/. Take a look, and see if you can find the one small fact I changed. Then, ask
youself -- why don't we ban cars?
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