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Health & Fitness

Cute Guns

If you assumed Arizona State Sen. Lori Klein, an outspoken gun rights advocate and NRA member, is a responsible gun owner, you'd be wrong.

Arizona State Sen. Lori Klein is, you would assume, a responsible gun owner. As an NRA member and a vocal supporter of gun ownership you would imagine she is dedicated to the organization’s Gun Safety Rules. You’d be wrong on both counts.  NRA Gun Safety Rule #1 is:

 “ALWAYS keep the gun pointed in a safe direction."
This is the primary rule of gun safety. A safe direction means that the gun is pointed so that even if it were to go off it would not cause injury or damage. The key to this rule is to control where the muzzle or front end of the barrel is pointed at all times. Common sense dictates the safest direction, depending on different circumstances.”

That’s why I saw red when I read that State Sen. Lori Klein, while being interviewed about her decision to carry a loaded handgun into the State Capitol two days after Jared Lee Loughner perpetrated the 6-dead,13-wounded Tucson massacre, gushed to the reporter about her gun, “Oh, it’s so cute.” With that, she either drew her raspberry-pink Ruger .380 LCP semi-automatic pistol from its carrying case and pointed it at the reporter’s chest with the laser sight lit but her finger off the trigger, or she placed it so that the reporter was targeted. In either case, she demonstrated highly irresponsible behavior that violated the NRA’s “primary rule of gun safety” as well as the “common sense” it invokes.

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No one with an ounce of common sense can believe Senator Klein should be allowed to own a gun. If Senator Klein had run a red light during her driver’s test, she wouldn’t have a driver’s license. She pointed her gun at someone without having to defend her life and she still gets to carry it.

According to the website of Gunsafe, there are about 1,100 fatal gun accidents each year in the U.S. That’s more than three deaths each day. If you can’t trust a highly-placed public official who is an outspoken gun rights proponent and NRA member to demonstrate a lick of sense in handling a gun, who can you trust? If this isn’t an argument for gun control, what is?

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While I’m at it, the raspberry-pink Ruger .380 LCP is not “cute.” It doesn’t have a safety. Some models fire when dropped. And guns shouldn’t be made to look cute.  Argue for their use in self-defense if you want to, but don't paint them in Barbie-doll-accessory colors and turn them into fashion statements.

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