AS SURE as night follows day, the letters from the anti-gun crowd were sure to come in the wake of my Jan. 30 column expressing my disgust over the state of Maryland's gleeful evisceration of the Second Amendment.
Merrill E. Milham of Baldwin wrote:
"Gregory Kane uses the robbery of his son's jacket to launch an emotional and irresponsible verbal attack on gun laws, various political figures and the State of Maryland.
"Mr. Kane makes the far-fetched claim that his son was victimized by the State of Maryland: He says that Maryland was responsible for disarming his son, who as a result was surprised by a criminal wielding a 12-gauge shotgun and robbed of his jacket. Suppose Mr. Kane's desires had been met and his son had possessed a handgun with which he had attempted to defend himself. Surely, this is the scenario of a tragedy in the making.
"Is a life not worth more than a leather jacket? Even a $600 jacket? Would Mr. Kane jeopardize his son's life merely to hold on to his own ideological straitjacket? Mr. Kane should be grateful that his son was `victimized' by the State of Maryland and avoided the ultimate victimization of a misguided attempt to defend himself with a handgun.
"Mr. Kane also advocates vigilantism by suggesting that he could have `a shotgun-to-shotgun chat' with his son's robbers. There is no indication that the police were ever notified of this robbery. Mr. Kane would apparently like nothing better than to bring anarchic and violent vigilante action to the streets of Baltimore. An attitude of contemptuous disregard for the law permeates this entire column. Mr. Kane has much to answer for and many apologies to make for his intemperate personal attacks and outlandish statements."
Dear Mr. Milham: I do apologize -- to my son for not getting him out of this state and into one -- like Florida -- that gives its citizens the right to carry handguns and has less crime than Maryland as a result. And oh yes, Mr. Milham, the police were contacted. They took a report. As of this writing, no robbery detective has taken my son to view mug-shots so he can attempt to identify the thug whose visage must be slipping from his memory with each passing day. For all your talk about my "contemptuous disregard for the law," the fact is solving the robberies of young black men is not, never has been and never will be a priority in this city.
This came from Guy Beck of Sparks:
