...But it just makes me so damned angry...

I promised myself I wasn't going to do this. I'm done with all this political bullshit, I said: Let them do whatever they want, because they will anyway and I'm off to find my own little piece of freedom. This latest (proposed) outrage won't go anywhere in any case, and there's absolutely no reason for me to get any portion of my undergarments in a wad over it. Forget it. Go for a nice walk with the dogs. Seriously, just walk away.

Yet here I am again, obsessing over what-all some tapeworm of a politician - whose name I will not utter here - is up to. And Sisyphus thought he was cursed.

I refer to the latest hoplophobic idiocy to bubble forth from Mordor By The Potomac, H.R.45. Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. Hell, it isn't even new. Once upon a time there was an H.R.2666 Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2007. It went nowhere, and probably this one will go to the same place. If you're bothering to read this blog, you probably know all about it already.

So who was Blair Holt, and why should we care? Blair Holt was a junior at Julian High School in Chicago. On May 12, 2007 he was a passenger on a CTA bus along with a number of other students. It was 3:15 in the afternoon. A young man named Michael Pace entered the bus and began firing a handgun at the passengers, apparently in hope of hitting a rival gang member he wasn't even sure was on the bus. Three girls and two boys were wounded by the gunfire; Blair Holt died of his injuries. The story goes that Blair Holt died a hero in the only way a person could legally be a hero under those circumstances in the city of Chicago; by shielding a classmate with his body while he took the bullet.

I don't know if that part of the story is true. I first heard it from the politician spewing forth the bill that bears Holt's name. I assume the politician's lips were moving while he told the story, so it's entirely possible it is a lie. But let's assume for the sake of discussion every word is true. That only makes this more reprehensible. It means that, in addition to violating every conceivable canon of logic in the name of further enhancing government power and neutering the American people, this politician is dancing in a hero's blood to do it.

Logic. The murderous outrage of May 12, 2007 occurred in the city of Chicago, a city with the distinction of having - and strictly enforcing - some of the most draconian laws against possession of the tools of self-defense in the nation. Chicago has the parallel distinction of always posting some of the worst annual murder rates in the nation. The experience of other cities indicates that these two distinctions are not unrelated. When Blair Holt was thrown into the situation that killed him, the only options open to him were to pray the bullets would strike someone else, or failing that to use his own body as a shield to keep them from strking someone else. Effective self-defense was not an option - not for anyone on the bus. The shooter was completely free to commit his sick act with impunity and he knew it. So did everyone else there.

The sense of utter helplessness those young people must have experienced on that day - I wish I couldn't imagine it. Disarmed by legal fiat, trained from infancy to believe and accept that the only role they could conceivably play in such circumstances was that of helpless victim - What vile, callous guardians they had! Guardians that very specifically include the monster who now wishes to use this young man's name in the promulgation of national legislation that would bring Chicago's murderously benighted rule to the nation as a whole.

Logic. Every single action Michael Pace committed in the killing of Blair Holt and the wounding of the other students was against multiple laws. It was illegal for him to possess the handgun. It was illegal for him to carry the handgun. It was illegal for him to board the bus with the handgun. It was illegal for him to brandish the handgun, to assault others with the handgun, to commit murder with the handgun. There are completely separate laws against all these things, and he knew it. And he didn't care. He had already chosen to opt out of the system that helped him kill Blair Holt, the system that ensured Blair Holt and every other law-abiding person on that bus was completely helpless against him, the system that this pig, this parasite, this foul excrescence of a politician wishes to impose by force on every one of us. Because it works so well in Chicago.

Gah. I keep promising myself I won't do this any more.