The Daily Beast is running an amazing memoir by Heidi Yewman about her "gun experiment" -- after listening to the NRA's Wayne LaPierre say, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Heidi purchased a gun in order to find out "what it felt like to be that 'good guy' by carrying a gun everywhere I went for a month, doing the absolute minimum that's legally required." In Heidi's state, that meant no requirement of one iota of training in the use of a gun before purchasing one. Her account of her actions and thoughts, and her decidedly unpleasant personality change during that month of "carrying" is so insightful and disturbing.
Here's the link:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
Particularly disturbing is what happened after the first article she wrote about this experiment appeared in Ms. magazine on June 12. More than 2,000 commenters responded, most of them gun-rights advocates who were VERY ANGRY with her. One commenter (a woman) even suggested that Heidi put the gun in her mouth (and pull the trigger). Heidi observed that these commenters "missed the point entirely: the experiment was designed to show how easy it is to obtain a gun without being required to know how to use it." Ms. magazine, overwhelmed by the hostility of the commenters, decided not to run the rest of the series Heidi had written. But you can read it now in The Daily Beast. It is well worth reading and pondering.