So Supervisor Stone wants to put a new twist on the old Mae West line, "Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" He's asked Sheriff Stan Sniff to relax requirements on permits to carry a concealed weapons, as he's pretty upset about inmates paroled early due to state budget constraints.
Although I believe that many parolees pose no danger to society, when we let truly bad people back out on the streets, it makes sense to protect ourselves ---- after all, our Constitution gives us the right to bear arms.
Obviously, a great many of the bad guys are packing; why shouldn't John or Jane Q. Public? However, to quote Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us." We shot ourselves in the foot last year by refusing to pass Proposition 5, which would have worked like Proposition 36, where drug and alcohol offenders are given treatment instead of jail. Prop. 5 would have done the same with nonviolent offenders, and minor parole and marijuana violations.
Prop. 36 helped more than 86,000 people start a new life, and although not all are success stories, it saved the state more than $2 billion dollars since its inception.
One of the ways to stop jail overcrowding is done for many domestic violence cases: home detention ---- which makes a lot of money for the county, as it's at least $50 to sign up, and anywhere from $25 to $50 a day for the monitoring. Seems like the state could do that and split the proceeds with the county to implement it.
Stone's suggestion makes some sense. If the soldiers at Fort Hood had been allowed to carry their sidearms, Hasan Nidal Hadalik would have been shot down on the spot instead of shooting at will until a civilian cop arrived. Seung Cho's massacre at Virginia Tech would have been prevented if the university hadn't been a "gun-free safety zone." In its wake, Utah has allowed students to carry concealed weapons.
But the hard part is what the Greeks say, "The iron draws a man to it," meaning people would be less likely to back off a situation if they were armed. We saw this in Old Town last year, although Officer Dibble would have been beaten severely by three men had he not drawn down.
I saw a "60 Minutes" segment where a soccer mom had a permit to carry a gun from an event years before, and after an easily avoidable road rage incident, she pulled over and shot another woman in the face, although she was in no apparent danger.
And quite often, brandishing a firearm for self-defense raises the ante of a confrontation, often with deadly results.
It's a confusing issue, to be sure.
GREG SCHARF writes from Temecula. Contact him at gscharf7@aol.com.
