In 1984 it still seemed possible to think that gun laws in the United States might be tightened. Editorial writers across the country regularly took up the cause. Richard Aregood, a Rutgers grad and an editorial writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, was one of them.
His July 23, 1984, editorial that won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing was concocted in response to the horrific July 18, 1984 incident where 41-year-old James Huberty, fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others before being killed by a police sniper at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Ysidro, California.
Here is Aregood’s 40-year-old case for gun control.
While surly psychopaths fondle their Uzis …
By Richard Aregood
We must indeed be crazy.
We Americans have sat by for years taking casualties because some people like to fire off guns and don’t want to put up with any hassle when they buy them.
We’re not alone in the world for lunacy — the Germans get downright surly whenever anyone threatens their sacred right to drive at 130 miles per hour on the autobahn. But we stand pretty much alone in pretending that our country is still some kind of frontier where a citizen needs a few pieces in his home in case of a surprise attack.
James Oliver Huberty is not unique. But he is an excellent example of why gun laws must be tightened. He was a surly, resentful man who hated almost everyone. Both he and his wife had a history of waving firearms at people with whom they had had minor squabbles.
Why Huberty — or anyone — should have a legitimate need for an Uzi assault rifle is something nobody can justify, although the gun nuts will try. Why Huberty — or anyone — should have armor-piercing ammunition is equally unjustifiable.
But he did. And he also had the 12-gauge shotgun and 9mm pistol with which he walked into a California McDonald’s restaurant last week. With them, he killed 20 people and wounded 19 before a policeman put a well-deserved rifle bullet through his chest. Pity he didn’t suffer.
How many surly sociopaths are out there thumbing through Soldier of Fortune magazine and fondling their Uzis? How many kids can buy a handgun on the street about as easily as they can buy a hot dog? Doesn’t that frighten you?
How many kids can buy a handgun on the street about as easily as they can buy a hot dog? Doesn’t that frighten you?
In their own defense, the gun lovers will tell you that the Constitution allows them their deadly pleasures, although they customarily leave out the part about a “well-regulated militia.” That means organizations like the National Guard, although the gun lovers will tell you that all of them automatically qualify.
They will say that cars also kill people, forgetting that you need a driver’s license and auto registration to buy and operate a car. They will say that kitchen knives can also kill, although they choose not to talk about how one could go about slaughtering an entire McDonald’s with a kitchen knife.
They will also say that they like to collect weapons, as if that were some sort of constitutionally protected pleasure. It doesn’t matter to them that burglars just love to rob gun collectors and peddle their swag to any criminal who will buy them. Would the country be as understanding of some nut who liked to collect various strains of anthrax?
The defenses are so much bull—-.
What legitimate purpose is served for hunters or target shooters by assault rifles, machine guns and heavy handguns that aren’t accurate enough to shoot at target distances? Those weapons are good only for killing people or playing soldier. And what legitimate purposes are served by permitting anyone, even a whacked-out head case like Huberty, to walk in and but any kind of deadly weapon he pleases?
Sixty Americans die every day — every day — in this country from handguns. Is it worth it?
There is no good reason why this country cannot ban the sale of military weapons to civilians. There is no good reason why handguns cannot be severely limited to target shooters and those with other good reasons to own them and their resale tightly regulated. There is no good reason why the majority of people in this country who favor controls have to be cowed by the minority that likes to play with guns.
There is only one reason, in fact, that makes any sense.
We must be nuts.
Ed. Note: Forty years later, Aregood’s claim of 60 daily handgun deaths is no longer valid. Every day, more than 120 Americans are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded.