From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] More knashing of teeth and whining by Canadians upset by the 2nd. Amendment. If you go to the websight you can email the author of this piece of trash yourself and maybe suggest that she return to Canada where she can happily resume her role of subject rather than citizen. Mike P http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/news/20001030NEW02_DIMANNO.html The Toronto Star News Story Mail this story to a friend October 30, 2000 Why Colorado gun lovers are going off half-cocked COLORADO SPRINGS - TRY AS I might, I just can't seem able to rack this damn Sig Sauer semi-automatic. Not in one fluid motion, anyway. Not the way the gun salesman at Specialty Sports and Supply has demonstrated. Not in a fashion whereby I might be able to blow off an intruder's head, Charlie's Angels-style, before he subjects me to a fate worse than death. I exchange abashed expressions with the young woman standing next to me at the counter, the one with the little boy, maybe 5 years old, who is staring with fascination at all the nifty, shiny handguns arrayed in glass display cabinets. She's having the same problem, see, and her husband is running out of patience. Hubby sighs and looks towards the salesman for a sympathetic audience: ``I have lotsa semi-automatics at home but she can't rack any of 'em.'' Sheesh. Women. The Sig Sauer is not to my liking anyway. Much preferable is the tiny derringer, a .22 short mini-revolver, dainty and decorous, it would fit in my garter, if I had a garter. Like a toy almost, this miniature weapon, but lethal enough at close range. I browse: Glock 9mm ($449), Smith and Wesson with nightsight ($439), used Ruger 9mm ($279), long-barrelled nickel-plated six-shooters - just like in those old Hollywood westerns - ($399), a Taurus PT-22 inlaid with mother-of-pearl ($219), Beretta Tomcat ($359), Magnum Baby Eagle ($399), Smith and Wesson .357 magnum ($429), Ladysmith .38 special ($389), Heckler and Koch tactical .45 ($899), Sig Sauer automatic ($1,395) . . . All prices American, of course. This is America. Salt of the earth America. God Bless America, America. So many guns. So little time. So feeble gun control laws. My altogether wholesome gun salesman reassures me that, not to worry, Colorado is not one of those states where gun purchasers have to wait for seven days or 15 days or 30 days while background checks are processed, just to make sure that I'm not, say, a convicted bank robber. No such ``cooling off'' period in flavour-of-the-frontier Colorado, where men are men and sheep dogs are nervous. ``We do the checks right here on the premises,'' I'm told. ``It only takes a couple of minutes.'' A thorough background check, no doubt. What if I don't have a driver's licence? No problem, any I.D. with an address will do. What if I'm from out-of-state? That's trickier; only long guns are available to cross-state-border shoppers. What if I'm from Canada? My salesman is suddenly downcast. ``Oh. Sorry. I wish I could help you . . .'' You know, I really do believe he means it. In this environment, it's difficult to remember that the majority of Coloradans - 81 per cent, according to a recent poll - are in favour of Amendment 22, one of the state ballot issues attached to the national U.S. election. (Further, and surprisingly, Colorado is not as solidly for Texas Governor George Bush, as had been the conventional view: Bush is at 44 per cent, but Vice-President Al Gore has gained five points, and now stands at 40 per cent.) Amendment 22 would require background checks of potential gun purchasers at gun shows, thereby closing a loophole in existing gun control legislation. At the moment only federally licensed dealers are required to conduct background checks at gun shows, not private sellers. The amendment is being fought, with all the big bucks at its disposal, by the National Rifle Association and other influential opinion-shapers. Opponents of Amendment 22 have received more than $660,000 from the NRA. Those opponents argue that the amendment is unnecessary because only somewhere between 1 and 2 per cent of crimes, nationally, can be definitely traced to weapons purchased at gun shows. Now, keep in mind this is Colorado we're talking about. Colorado, where armed-to-the-teeth teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold massacred 13 students at Columbine High School in April, 1999 before killing themselves. Colorado, where Robyn Anderson - the girl who obtained from an unlicensed vendor at a gun show some of those weapons used by Harris and Klebold to slay their classmates - has testified she wouldn't have bought them had she faced such a background check. A Canadian can only shake her head in disbelief. Even a Canadian who grew up around long guns and who has no inherent wish to take rifles out of the hands of hunters. But handguns? Sophisticated pistols that serve no purpose except to kill human beings? Too much government interference, screech the gun lovers, although their right to purchase weaponry and ammo is not at risk. An infringement of individual rights as guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, they shriek. They have the constitutional right to defend their families and their property, as if this was still the 19th century and circuit court judges an itinerant, far-distant guarantor of justice. Down the road in Denver, a 15-year-old boy is currently in court, accused of slaying his 29-year-old schoolteacher in her home. Also in Denver, this past Friday, the brother of a high school football coach pulled a gun on an assistant right there on the field. In Arizona, also last week, a 14-year-old boy armed with a 9-mm - taken from his father - held a classroom full of 7th and 8th graders hostage, apparently because he was looking for attention. Said a police officer after the boy had surrendered: ``All that was required was the trigger being pulled.'' By the way, also available at Specialty Sports and Supply is an interesting selection of books, including: Acquiring New I.D. - How to Easily Use the Latest Computer Technology to Drop Out, Start Over and Get On With Your Life; Duty Free Smuggling Made Easy; Modern Weapons Coaching - A Down To Earth Approach to Beating the Government Gun Grab; and Pool Cues, Beer Bottles and Baseball Bats. On the front door is posted this public service poster: Only You Can Guarantee Your 2nd Amendment Rights. . . . We Can Help You Exercise Them. No More Gun Control - No on 22. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Rosie DiManno usually appears Mondayu, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. 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