OK... How about some Cherry Kool-aid instead?

Nicholas Kristof mixes up a new flavor of gun control Kool-aid for the Democrats in the NY Times.

Since attempting the banning of guns outright has been a political disaster for the Dems over the past ten years, Kristof suggest another tactic: regulating them to death. This is yet another let's-treat-guns-like-cars/public-health approach. The problem is in the nature of the 30,000 annual firearms related deaths he's trying to prevent. Over half are suicides. A loaded chamber indicator isn't going to prevent a suicide. (And since those bent upon self-slaughter have other means that may be substituted in place of a gun, no firearm regulation will reduce the number of suicides.) The other half are nearly all homicides; usually bad guys killing other bad guys.

There are accidents each year, but mechanical gadgetry will not solve that problem. David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, pontificates "You can tell whether a camera is loaded by looking at it, and you should be able to tell whether a gun is loaded by looking at it,". Mr. Hemenway, a gun is always loaded until you've opened it up, looked inside, and know otherwise. Education programs, such as the NRA's Eddie Eagle project are the key to saving lives.

Mechanical doo-dads can fail. A loaded chamber indicator is usually some sort of push rod that's deflected by the round in the chamber, The rod then causes a little flag to appear. But what if the rod breaks? What pushes the little flag up then? Nothing, of course. Those unfamiliar with firearms would then incorrectly assume that the firearm is unloaded and thus safe. This is a recipe for tragedy.

This is nothing more than another attempt to ban firearms. "Safety" regulations merely attempt to ban guns by attrition by forcing manufacturers to jump through so many hoops that their profits evaporate. It may not be grape flavored, but it's still Kool-aid. (OK... "Flavor-aid" for you sticklers!)