Rich Matarese replied to the WSJ Question of the day...

So many patriots are coming out and writing to defend our 2nd amendment freedoms in the wake of the aftermath of the Tucson incident. Here is one such mini-essay:

Mr. Schaler, it has never been (and can never be) a matter "of allowing the truly mentally ill, to buy, borrow, and/or rent a gun."

First - speaking practically - it is impossible to PREVENT "the truly mentally ill" from obtaining firearms, explosives, toxic chemicals, bladed instruments, or merely blunt objects with which to work mayhem or murder. The only thing that preventive measures can do is to disarm the potential victims of criminals and "the truly mentally ill."

Only law-abiding citizens abide by such laws. Criminals and "the truly mentally ill" do not. You got that yet?

Second, your presumption that this "very tough and complicated problem, can have a simple answer, if we ask the right people" is itself both politically hateful (for a number of reasons which I'm happy to explain) and frankly insane.

That's you, Mr. Schaler. You're insane. There is a tendency on the part of idiots and mentally ill people to assume that there's somebody out there - some "expert" - who is capable of coming up with solutions to each "very tough and complicated problem" upon which the idiot in question focuses, wrinkling his brow and peering stupidly into the inscrutable mystery before him.

Presuming that you're not an idiot, Mr. Schaler, and that you're not simply evil, the only alternative is that you're out of your freakin' mind. It's the most charitable inference to assume, ain't it?

The solution to the problem posed by the ability of "the truly mentally ill, to buy, borrow, and/or rent a gun" is the widespread practice of concealed weapons carriage among the law-abiding civilian population so that whenever such "truly mentally ill" persons act violently, lethal force may be employed quickly in retaliation, either to constrain cessation or to kill 'em.

Think of the firearm as a kind of power tool. Heck, that's what each of them is. People with the mental disease of hoplophobia (unreasoning fear of weapons0 invest supernatural powers in such tools. Those of us in the "gun culture" (familiar with and practiced in the use of firearms) look at them as not a helluva lot different from gadgets like electric drills, blowtorches, or chain saws. They have their peculiar characteristics and utilities, and they can do a lot of damage if used carelessly or maliciously, but they're only tools.

And human beings have been tool-users since before we invented agriculture. A firearm - particularly a handgun, whether a revolver or a semiautomatic - is an extremely human item, designed for human use by human beings.

Only an obviously insane person - that's you, Mr. Schaler - would conclude otherwise, and seek means by which the officers of civil government should institute "Citizen surveillance" of the law-abiding human beings all around you in order to ensure that they are reduced to helpless victim status so that your insane phobia can be assuaged.

Source.