In pro-gun mythology, if you "know and respect" guns, little harm can ever come to you. The alleged transmogrifying effect of firearms -- which supposedly grant children maturity, the weak character, and everyone a convenient touchstone to a sepia-toned past that traces its origin to the Bill of Rights -- is a mantra of gun magazines and pro-gun organizations.
In addressing the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in 2004, Vice President Cheney described himself and President Bush as "lifelong gun owners, hunters, and anglers -- and strong believers in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. Like many of you, I grew up close to the land, learned from my dad how to handle a gun, and still look forward to every chance to join up with friends to go hunting."
If guns don't kill, or injure, people do, what does that say about the Vice President? Or any of the other pro-gun advocates who have found themselves in the position of having to admit that the pro-gun palliatives they so solemnly mouth offer no guarantees.
Last month, pro-gun Virginia Delegate John S. Reid, while trying to unload a handgun in his legislative office, unintentionally fired the weapon. The round was stopped by a bulletproof vest hanging on the door to the reception area.
In August 2002, during a reception in his honor, NRA Board Member and then-Georgia Representative Bob Barr accidently fired an antique 38 caliber handgun. The bullet hit a glass door and no one was injured.
In December 2002, David Michael Keene, 21--the son of NRA Board Member and American Conservative Union Chairman David Keene--was involved in a road rage incident on the George Washington Parkway where he fired a shot from a handgun which shattered the window of a Mercedes Benz and became lodged in the driver's seat, just inches from the other driver's head.
These incidents, like the Cheney shooting, puncture the pro-gun argument that 'knowing guns' and 'having respect for guns' are enough to overcome the inherent hazards of firearms. Saturday's shooting was one more addition to the more than quarter million Americans who have been injured by firearms during President George W. Bush's tenure. From 2001 through 2004, the most recent year available, 252,076 Americans were injured by firearms according to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. From 2001 through 2003, the most recent year available, nearly 30,000 Americans a year were killed by firearms according to information from the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Vice President Cheney's victim is now just one more sad statistic in America's annual gun toll.