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America's Gun 'Craziness' Is Reaching Absurd Limits

Gail Collins: Utah is about to honor an official state firearm
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2011 1:22 PM CST
America's Gun 'Craziness' Is Reaching Absurd Limits
File photo of a Glock 26 9mm semi-automatic handgun with ammo.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Gail Collins thinks there's "a new streak of craziness abroad in the land" regarding guns, and she contrasts two proposed pieces of legislation as proof. The first, introduced by Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, would put into place "modest" checks such as "making it more difficult to sell guns to people on the terror watch list." Seems reasonable enough, she writes in the New York Times, yet Lautenberg probably won't even get a hearing.

In Utah, meanwhile, state lawmakers are nearly tripping over themselves in rush to pass a bill declaring the Browning M1911 pistol as the official state gun. Really? wonders Collins. An official state gun? Something's seriously wrong in a culture that has "politicians scrambling to prove not just that they are against gun regulation, but also that they are proactively in favor of introducing guns into every conceivable part of American life. National parks. Schools. Bars. Airports." (More guns stories.)

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