This ain't South Dakota! Sen. John Thune's whacky gun plan completely misses the mark.
Thursday, July 23rd 2009, 4:00 AM
The senator from the state that kills Wild Bill Hickok every day for tourists says we would be safer with gun-toting yahoos walking around Central Park.
Yee-ha!
Never mind that there has not been a killing in Central Park since 2002, the victim being struck from behind with a rock.
And never mind that a bullet in the back of Hickok's head proved more than a century ago that packing two six-guns is no protection against a coward.
Here is what Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday on the Senate floor before his colleagues voted down his plan to let citizens with permits to carry a concealed weapon in one state to carry it in another, including New York:
"I say to my colleague from New York that if someone who has a concealed carry permit ...in the State of South Dakota [who] goes to New York and is in Central Park - Central Park is a much safer place," Thune told our Sen. Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor.
Thune was responding to Schumer's observation that the measure would allow gun dealers to lug a whole backpack of weapons into the city, even into Central Park.
Thune argued that the safest park in the safest of big cities, a park where there has been not been a killing in seven years and where violent crime is down 74%, would be made safer by some wanna-be Wild Bill.
Even in our most dangerous days, Central Park was considerably safer than the Deadwood of Hickok's time, when anybody who wanted to carry a gun could and did.
This year's killings in South Dakota include the March 15 shooting of Turner County Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels.
He was responding to the farmhouse home of 19-year-old Ethan Johns, who had been fighting with his girlfriend.
"If they come over, I'm shooting them," Johns reportedly texted his girlfriend's sister Deadwood-style after being told the police were on the way.
Mechels was shot in the arm, and he retreated back to his patrol car.
Johns then fired through the windshield, striking the officer in the throat and killing him, police say. Johns then called 911.
"A cop walked into my house and I shot him," he informed the dispatcher.
"How do you know it was an officer?" the dispatcher asked.
"'Cause he started shooting back at me," Johns replied.
Days after the slaying, Thune eulogized the 32-year-old fallen officer on the Senate floor, saying, "I wish to pay honor to Deputy Sheriff Chad Mechels. ... He is survived by his wife, Jamie Mechels, and two children, Avery, age 7, and Thomas, age 3. ... The sacrifice made by this brave officer is something we should always remember. Everyday heroes, like Chad, are those who keep us all safe."
Here in New York, we have some 34,000 everyday heroes like Chad who keep us all safe, too often at the expense of their lives.
The last thing we need here is more people packing guns.
We should be thankful the Senate voted down Thune's proposal, which the senator made while standing just where he stood while eulogizing the murdered cop.
This was the first time the Senate rejected an NRA-backed measure since 2004, nearly as long ago as the last killing in Central Park.
Our mayor has seen enough shot cops in emergency rooms to recognize Thune's suggestion to be nuts at best.
"Saying that you will bring down crime by giving people guns is just absurd," Mayor Bloomberg said.
"That's the nicest way to put it. Only somebody who plays footloose and fancy-free with the facts and has an agenda would have the nerve to say something like that."
Bloomberg noted that Central Park is about as safe as can be.
The people we have to thank for that are our everyday heroes.
If Thune is afraid to go there without a pistol, I would be glad to escort him.
Heck, we might even sit down for a friendly game of cards.
He will have no need to look over his shoulder, even if he draws aces and eights.
Another GOP Dumb and Dumber.
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