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"March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb," the proverb says. Or so I thought. During a lull in activities in February (aka "The Winter of our Discontent"), I "googled" the phrase and found it actually reads: If March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb." All these years, despite evidence to the contrary (sometimes around here, March comes in like a Grizzly Bear with a tax problem and goes out like a Wolverine with a head cold), I counted on the certainty: one thing after another, light at the end of the tunnel. But "if" changes things quite a bit. Whoever invented the notion of lion/lamb (and even on the Internet that was rather murky), decided to hedge the bet. In March things look relatively rosy for gunowners. Ohio has passed a concealed carry law, that, while it doesn't make everyone happy, at least gives the state's citizens a place to start. New Mexico, which passed a law last year, finally saw it resolved in the courst in favor of law-abiding citizens. Missourians are waiting on a similar judicial outcome, and folks in Wisconsin sweat out a legislative override of a gubernatorial veto. As we began 2004, more states than not have a right to carry law. So March comes in like a lion-but we're still not sure what kind of critter goes out. Kansas, one of only four states without any law, is pondering one, but faces the prospect of a Democrat governor's veto if they get it through the legislature. But, New York, which has a crazy quilt of discretionary laws that varyin practice from county to county, is looking at big changes in fees and length of license validity (upstate it's until revoked, downstate its between 3-5 years), courtesy of a Republican governor, who seems determined to pick on gunowners throughout his tenure, even though they helped to elect him originally. And then there's the Big If-this year's presidential race. The modern day proverb writers had it all figured out in January. Dean comes in like a lion. No one, I guess, reckoned on what would happen if he roared like a lion, though. Through the beginning of the primary season, about half of the Democrats professed to be pro-gun-if by pro-gun you meant someone who had hunted, grown up near guns, lived in a state where a lot of other people hunted, or just read the tea leaves from the last few federal elections which showed that being anti-gun can hurt you. But the pro-gun cubs of the Democratic party were quick to point out that they roared every chance they could at the gun lobby and that they were all-to a man-in favor of a renewal of the so-called assault weapons ban, a major feature of which limits the capacity of civilian firearms, and most of the other stuff their party has been in favor of for the last 30 years. Lions? Lambs? "Oh, my!" as Dorothy said about some different animals. If, the pundits first said, the economy continues to improve and if there is no big foreign policy surprise, then whoever runs against the President will probably come out of the general election shorn, because the President is unbeatable (if, of course, the other bad things don't happen). There is still a little science left in political science, but unfortunately, we seem to prefer our elections served up as reality shows, complete with fake "challenges" like scripted debates and "human interest" angles like whose wife is dowdier and whose forehead smoother. There is substance out there, and real difference, even within political parties, and as Bob Dylan observed, "you don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing." Weather and politics affect us all. We can complain about
both. But we can only change one.
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By
Peggy Tartaro,
