Insanity!

The Oklahoman has spent the past few weeks running pro-gun letters. Some have been bad, while others have been really bad. I recently thought I'd seen the dumbest letter yet, when Doug Tate argued that Americans should have guns to protect ourselves from Islamic fundamentalists.

But then comes today's letter from J. R. Burton of The Village. It's short, so we can read it in its entirety:

If the federal government denies some people the right to own firearms because they're deemed mentally unstable, isn't the government then creating a class status? Those who are entitled to all the rights guaranteed under the Constitution are first-class citizens; those who are entitled to some of the rights guaranteed under the Constitution are deemed second-class citizens.

I haven't doctored this letter at all. Mr. Burton is suggesting that denying the right of the mentally unstable to own firearms is akin to creating a stratified society of first-class and second-class citizens. (Where class, of course, is defined by one's ability to own a gun.)

Mentally unstable. For real. Burton thinks that this guy should be able to walk into Bubba's Gun Emporium and buy an uzi.

Here's the reality: No one is taking away your guns, J. R. Yes, President Obama recently announced that he wanted some things to happen-- but the list he released is a) not law, and b) hardly oppressive to anyone. It includes things like "Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system" and "Nominate an ATF director"-- hardly frightening.

But what's absolutely bonkers is for the Oklahoman to run a letter complaining that it's unfair that the mentally unstable might have greater restrictions on gun ownership. Is there really NO BETTER ARGUMENT against gun control than pleas for the MENTALLY UNSTABLE to be able to have guns, too? If that's the best you can do, then just drop the topic altogether.