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Richard Crowson: Digging Ourselves Deeper

When shovels are outlawed only outlaws will have shovels. I guess that’s the predominant attitude in certain circles these days. As for me, I’m all for some sane shovel-control laws in this country.

In spite of the best efforts of many fine, upstanding, super-colossal maxi-conservatives, we have gone down a slippery slope. Not the slippery slope that they were so worried about—you know, the one that leads to more and more restrictive gun laws. We avoided that one, thank the Lord.

But in our efforts to protect our (ahem) well-regulated militia’s right to keep and bear arms we have slid way on down a slippery slope of a different type. It’s the slippery slope toward weak and ineffective gun laws. Now we find ourselves down here at the bottom of that darn slope, armed to the teeth with everything from conceal carry handguns to assault rifles.

While we see the almost daily reports of shootings in schools, in retail areas, in theaters and even in houses of worship, many continue to use these episodes as evidence that there are still not enough guns being carried around. The answer to this problem is to arm more folks, they say, on the theory that the Average Joe is a crack shot and the thought that all Average Joes might be totin’ a shootin’ iron is enough to make the bad guys hold their fire.

To me, this argument is pretty similar to the old adage about finding oneself stuck down in a hole. Continuing to dig deeper is not the way out of the hole. In fact, repeating the same action over and over in hopes that a different result will emerge is what’s called “insanity.”

So, I think it’s time to let go of some of these shovels. Especially the assault shovels. It could be that this slope we fell down in is so slippery because of all the blood spilled. And this hole we find ourselves in bears some resemblance to a grave.

Richard Crowson is not only a editorial commentator for KMUW. He's also a cartoonist, an artist and a banjo player.