how about no?

check this out. i caught a snippet on the news, but it almost slipped through the cracks.

ok, so the idea is to get guns and drugs off the streets. thats a fairly noble idea. but the execution of this seemingly good idea shows just how out of touch the policy makers are.

so the premise is that the police come to communities with gun and drug issues and knock on doors. they ask the owner or tenant to sign a form allowing the police to search warrant less and that is also intended to give the signer amnesty. the thing is that cops dont have that much good will to make this work. especially in troubled neighborhoods.

i just dont see how they plan to make this work. sure there may be a few cases where a parent has a bad apple staying with them and they might want to cooperate, but in cases where people know they have guns or drugs, they arent going to let the cops in to take them and possibly prosecute their buddies. and if they knock on my door i would definitely send them away. look, the constitution says i have the right to privacy unless i do something to jeopardize that, which i havent, so why would i let you in? what good could possibly come of it? sorry, coppers, maybe the schmuck next door wants you all up in his business, but i dont.

and here are two seemingly contradictory claims:
"If we come across illegal contraband, we will confiscate it," Lanier said. "But amnesty means amnesty. We're trying to get guns and drugs off the street."
"If guns are found, they will be tested to determine whether they were used in crimes. If the results are positive, police will launch investigations, which could lead to charges."

furthermore, guns are currently illegal to most citizens in the district. so even having a gun, legal or not, in your home is against the law. so lets see, turn the officers away, youre suspicious. let them in and they find grandpa Joe's rifle from WWII and they could take it from you. let them in and they find out that you have an illegal gun in your house, youre marked for the future. youre damned if you do, damned if you dont.

look, folks, if you want the down low and want to make places safer, try some old fashioned leg work. start patrolling. put cops on beats. thats right, on foot. (gasp!) get to know the residents, gain their trust, become part of the neighborhood and take an interest in it. then the residents might just come to you with information.

again, the thought is good, but the execution is dead wrong.

yikes.

check out this article before you read this. even if you just get the gist.

whether for guns or against them, i dont know how its ever a good idea to allow people to come into restaurants that serve alcohol. i dont know how it is a good idea to have them in any restaurant, really. i had never really thought about this before. i figured its your choice on whether or not to own a gun, but its kinda scary to think that the guy at the next table could be armed.

i dont like that idea one bit. and as a owner or manager of a restaurant, i would not let armed people eat there. i dont care how much the NRA doesnt like it, there are plenty of people who would like to eat in a place and not have to worry about gunfire.

i have always felt like i fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum on gun control. i think that people should be able to protect themselves in their homes. i think that people should be able to have the hobbies that they want like hunting and target shooting. i have never understood why any private citizen would need any automatic weapons or any crazy powerful or high powered weapons. and think it would be a terrible mistake to allow anyone with a history of violent crimes to own any firearm.

it mystifies me that a state that has rather tight liquor laws could have such lax gun laws. perhaps what shows my position best is that i live in DC where it is currently illegal to own a gun. i dont think an all out ban is the right answer, but certainly going out to eat armed is a wrong answer. this isnt the wild west. this isnt Iraq. i believe in the second amendment. but there is a time and place for everything. dinner is not the time and restaurants are not the place for guns.