:: The Bitch Girls ::

:: Saturday, January 25, 2003 ::

More Gun Talk You guys should know that I'm always up for a good gun article. Anyway, I haven't even finished reading this article as I'm writing this. We'll learn together.

Wearing flip-flops to work at Larimer County's food stamp office is prohibited. Bringing a gun to work is allowed.
Commissioners in this northern Colorado county are working to clarify their stance on guns in the workplace with a written policy after two employees were spotted with handguns. There were no injuries in either case.

Why did they put that statement about injuries in there? Did these employees draw their guns?

A representative of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said a county that allows workers to bring guns to work is unheard of because most prohibit guns in public buildings.

Gee, Brady Bunch gets mentioned in within the first few paragraphs. I hate to tell them that there are people that carry on a regular basis for protection. Many parts of the country don't have their heads as far up their asses as people in DC, where the Brady Campaign is located.

"I don't want to be in a building with a bunch of cowboys," retired Fort Collins high school teacher Fred Schmidt said this week. "Let's take this to its logical conclusion. What if they get into a gun fight? They could cause more damage than good because they're not trained like police officers."

A bunch of cowboys, eh? None of the Bitches have ever been called cowboys before, and we use guns all the time. A couple of us may regularly carry when we "grow up." I guess we'll be part of that mysterious group of lawful handgun owners that the Brady Bunch claims go out on rampages and kills every innocent bystander. I forgot about those crazy lawful handgun owners. Two people on this page's blogroll didn't put out a paper in 1994 that found police have a rate of killing innocent people of about 11% versus the 2% rate of citizens. (Check out Gun Facts.)

Carpenter Ben Stein, 42, of Fort Collins said, "Walking into a public building and knowing that the person you're dealing with is armed, is frightening to me. It doesn't create a pleasant environment."

Unless you pull a gun on them and try to take them hostage or kill them, you'll never know.

Gun-rights issues caught the public's attention in 1999 when newly elected Sheriff Jim Alderden loosened restrictions on issuing concealed weapons permits.

WRONG! Gun-rights issues caught the media's attention. Many of us, this includes those on the other side of the debate, are always paying attention.

The proposed written policy began taking shape last year after a handgun slipped out of a human services employee's holster and clanked down a stairwell. Later, a co-worker opened her purse, exposing another handgun.

So they finally decided to tell us what happened. Face it, if they were legal to have the guns concealed, the only one with a problem is the one who complains.

The human services department then proposed a policy banning guns for workers other than law enforcement personnel. County Manager Frank Lancaster drafted a countywide ban meant to close the loophole.
"We had never thought about it," Lancaster said. "Even though I feel like I kicked over a can of worms, we were going to have to deal with it at some point."

First, I love how beginning a discussion of the issue of personal rights, then finding that not everyone agrees with your terms of the discussion is opening a can of worms. Second, Bitchy Mom works in social services. If they don't have anything to worry about then I'd like to know why her office asked a police officer to come over and spend the day teaching them how to defend themselves.

"To me, that made a second class citizen of employees," Alderden said. "What the county was looking at doing was keeping employees from being able to defend themselves."

Thank you! One pro-gun rights statement in the entire article. Twenty (20!) paragraphs and we got one statement on the side of those that choose to follow the law and protect their right to self defense.

Hey, guess what... There's a poll on the page that asks if you would support the right of people with concealed carry permits (issued after background checks and firearms training) to carry to work in county offices if you lived there. Vote early and vote often.

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:: Bitter 8:55 PM [+] ::
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