By Peggy Tartaro,
Executive Editor

I was all set to begin my column on the subject of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. What another couple of hundred words could add to the debate about her, I'm not sure, but I felt it was topical and of importance to gunowners.

Sotomayor's much discussed comment about a "wise Latina woman" was to be my departure point and I was going to point out that most people-not just lawyers-think they are "wiser" than nearly everyone else.

But while I was looking through some newspapers online for the latest conventional wisdom on Sotomayor, I stumbled across a blog on The New York Times which amused and irritated me, and in some ways speaks to the whole question of identity politics.

In Randy Cohen's Moral of the Story blog for June 2, the writer- who also pens the Times' "Ethicist" column-headlined his post "Give Women Guns."
The blog allows Cohen to comment on a topic of the day and dissect it from an ethics point of view.

"Ethics has two broad concerns-determining what's right, and getting people to do what's right. When it comes to the former, there is clearly an ethical issue: guns are a significant social problem, the second leading cause of injury-related death in the U.S. behind car accidents. In 1997, for example, guns caused 64,207 injuries and 32,436 deaths. There were 544,880 crimes using guns reported to the police in 1994. Expanding the real estate where guns can be carried is unlikely to improve these grim statistics," Cohen wrote, commenting on the May 22 passage of the credit card reform bill which contained a provision for concealed carry in National Parks by citizens allowed to do so by the state the Park is located in.

"Inspired by his example, I propose curbing gun violence not by further restricting the availability of guns but by expanding and reorienting it. Men would still be forbidden to walk the streets armed, in accordance with current laws, but women would be required to carry pistols in plain sight whenever they are out and about."

Cohen, an Emmy-winning comedy writer, telegraphs fairly early in his posting that his tongue is in his cheek:

"Were I to board the subway late at night, around Lincoln Center perhaps, and find it filled with women openly carrying Metropolitan Opera programs and Glock automatics, I'd feel snug and secure. A train packed with armed men would not produce the same comforting sensation. Maybe that's because men have a disconcerting tendency to shoot people, while women display admirable restraint. Department of Justice figures show that between 1976 and 2005, 91.3% of gun homicides were committed by men, 8.7% by women."

Naturally we are meant to snicker along with Cohen and fellow Times readers in conjuring up visions of smartly-dressed opera goers openly toting Glocks. (Perhaps for a production of Wagner's Ring Cycle, but for most operas-and most opera clothes-something a little less bulky would be in order.)

Cohen concludes:
"If nothing else, my plan would compel both factions, pro- and anti-gun, to reconsider their positions. If its adoption strews the streets with bullet-riddled bodies, then the pro-gun forces will have to abandon the idea that increased gun ownership decreases crime. If my plan actually does reduce gun violence, then gun-control partisans (including me) will have to re-examine their own assumptions. Regardless of the outcome, my plan will bring light and learning - actual evidence - to a debate largely characterized by squabbling and bluster."

Would that bloggers and ethicists for The New York Times had as much clout as, say, the same newspaper's editorial board!

In a follow up to his original post, Cohen assayed some of the many comments posted to the blog, including a few from women gunowners. Most, however, were so appalled at the idea of women gunowners that they missed-or dismissed-Cohen's humorous "modest proposal" in favor of fulmination on the evils of gun ownership.

Someone posted a comment sneering that next women would want "teal" handguns-as if that were the most effete color imaginable, or as if the poster didn't know that the first iteration of Detonics was making such a gun over 20 years ago.

Even wise people-"ethicists," New York Times readers and Supreme Court nominees-could benefit from a trip on the subway now and then, or a serious look at how the rest of the world gets on.

Peggy Tartaro

Photo © Copyright 1998 Nancy Floyd, used with permission.