Hot on the heels of my state's easing of restrictions on open-carry, the Hooterville Library Federation lobbyists have sent out a request to local libraries. They want us to report incidents of armed patrons "misbehaving". Gee. I wonder why. Do you suppose they don't like the state telling them they must now allow guns in libraries?
Oh my God! Think of the children!!!!!
See, here's the thing. Or a few "things." Most library patrons are pretty well behaved to begin with. Most people who legally carry guns are also pretty well behaved. In general, the people who behave badly in libraries are the very same people who behave badly everywhere else: un- and under-employed burnouts and high school dropouts who don't interact well with civilized society. Most often, they're the "internet losers." (While a substantial percentage of public internet users are perfectly decent folks, libraries are now host to a steady stream of filthy, chemically impaired cretins and perverts who lack online access at home.) The others who misbehave are the marginally literate DVD addicts, but (at least in my library) we get rid of them pretty quickly. DVD's are limited to one-week check-outs, can't be renewed, and cost a dollar a day in overdue fines. Anyone with fines over $5.00 can't check out at all. Since these people aren't very good with rules and such, they usually end up delinquent within about a month, and we never see them (or our DVD's) again. Oh hell, there I go on a tangent again! Back to the real issue.
The thing about people who misbehave in the library is that the last thing they're going to do is risk arrest while getting their internet fix! Many of these dopes have criminal records and the new open-carry law doesn't apply to them! They're already prohibited from possessing guns! If they're carrying in the library, you can bet your last dollar we don't know about it. So what the hell are we expected to report to the ILF?
Sheesh!
I always take Gun to the library. It helps me think. I ask it questions, like Should we get this book or that one? Gun usually wants to read books with people getting shot -- at the library.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Lola
Here in GA they relaxed the carrying law and allow firearms to be carried in bars and stuff. In a recent report (don't have the link or able to authenticate it for you - just something I read)police say that altercations have gone down in the bars. Dudes just don't pick fights with a drunk dude with a gun. And if both are carrying, they usually end up buying each other beers. It's not like the cowboy movies with all the gun play. And I cannot imagine anyone shooting someone over a book.
ReplyDeleteDamn straight, Coffeypot! Same thing happened in (I think) Virginia. Guns don't cause violence, they deter it. Who was it that said "An armed society is a polite society?"
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