The two words the Tucson mayor won't say: gun control

I was amazed to watch an interview with the Mayor of Tucson, Bob Walkup, yesterday on PBS Newshour. He talked on and on (not very well, he almost convinced me that Mayor Fenty is a good public speaker by comparison) about the need for civility, without discussing that Glock handguns with extended magazines aren't purchased for protection, but for their potential as killing machines.

People kill people. They use guns to do it.

Many people are disturbed. Making it easy for people to buy guns or extend the power of guns as killing machines increases the likelihood that people will be killed.

It's pretty simple.

One of the rare discussions about gun control thus far in the context of the Tucson shooting is in today's Post, in a column by Eugene Robinson, "Guns and responsibility." From the article:

We may not be sure that the bloodbath in Tucson had anything to do with politics, but we know it had everything to do with our nation's insane refusal to impose reasonable controls on guns.

Specifically, the rampage had everything to do with a 9mm semiautomatic Glock pistol - a sleek, efficient killing machine that our lax gun laws allowed an unstable young man to purchase, carry anywhere and ultimately use to shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in the head. The weapon also was used to shoot 19 bystanders, killing six of them, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl.