These are not nuts.

Tonight on Real Time with Bill Maher one of Bill's guests got discussing the need for gun control and cited the recent shootings in a movie theater and at the gas station. Bill replied, "Those are the nuts." That's what so dangerous about guns. Those are not the nuts. Curtis Reeves, the retired police officer who shot and killed Chad Oulson was not a nut. He was an ordinary man who like many ordinary men had a temper. So his anger at Oulson's texting might have ended in a black eye and a night in jail, except that he had a gun. Michael Dunn, who shot and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis in a gas station was not a nut. He was an ordinary man who liked many ordinary men had a temper. So his anger at Davis might have ended in a scuffle and a night in jail, except that he had a gun. A gun is not your friend. It is your worst enemy because when you're all worked up over a minor and temporary fury that causes you to lose perspective and control, that gun is the handiest way to momentarily quell your madness. It did that for Curtis Reeves and Michael Dunn. Now both of them will be spending much, if not all, of their lives in prison. If you have a gun, you are likely to use it. And chances are it won't be for some heroic life-saving rescue, but for some idiotic life-changing "terrible thing that can't be undone".