Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Unfriends And Guns: Dr. Straub (Kind Of) Backs Down

Tam snarked it better than I could: seems our new Public Safety Director was taken to the woodshed over his comment that "...we have way too many guns on the street and way too many people own guns."

Front page of the Indy (Twinkling) Star today: Gun-rights backers cast wary eye on safety chief. Well, duh. Soooo, Dr. Frank Straub offers this concession to us heathens: "If people follow the rules and regulations and get guns through those,* they can they can own as many guns as they would like to own and have. I have no problem with that."

What did he not say? I've been through the article several times; it's not there. Here's another fine, gun-friendly quote: Mayor Ballard's spokesbeing Robert Vane attornalizes, "I'm aware of no effort by the administration to limit or restrict the legal possession of firearms."

Hear it? It's the hollow echo of a missing word. They're all "keep." No "bear." And bear, my friends, bear is something a police force can make plenty awkward.

This isn't all that new; the guy who taught my very first Basic Handgun class, a gun-shop owner and part-time LEO, made it clear that while Indiana does not require concealed carry, concealed made for a lot less excitement. Still, times change and one might expect our nominally gun-friendly Mayor would try to keep up. Doesn't look that way.

There's still time for another trip to the woodshed for Dr. Straub -- and Mayor Ballard, too.
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* Wonder if he knows Hoosiers can sell firearms to one another at will and without State permission, as long as neither party is prohibited from possessing them? Bet not.

4 comments:

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Someone should have had the sense to brief him on Indiana gun laws before he opened his fat New York mouth. It would have saved him having to back down his foolish statement.

Crucis said...

Sic'em, Roberta!

Justthisguy said...

Wow. I just read _every_ post on the ingunowners thread. That is some right scary stuff! What ever became of that? I hope that Officer Cartman got, at least, some counseling, and preferably some prosecution?

He (Officer Cartman) was dumb, too. The throwaway line, toward the end: "I didn't reach for my cell phone, because it was right next to my backup gun."

Bwahahahaha!

If the O.P. had actually been a bad'un, he could easily have taken care of the doodah with badge while said doodah was trying to manipulate the safety on the other piece. (Eyeball shots work, even with itty bitty pistols.)

Roberta X said...

I am given to understand that Officer [Cartman] was under unusual stress at the time. While it seems likely he is still a jerk, it is likely he usually controls it better.

Guys like that are why I rarely OC. Under that much stress, I am liable to say the wrong thing -- or just shut down, stammer so much I can't answer their questions quickly enough.