The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

So I overheard a scary story on Christmas. I discovered an ardent gun-owner is also a sleepwalker. His significant other shared a story on how she felt he was going to kill her. He supposedly heard a loud noise, so he went to the safe and wasn't responding to his girlfriend. She thought he was sleepwalking again and was freaked out as he was loading his gun. Without uttering a word, he stood right in front of her with a loaded firearm, and it was this point she thought, "Well, I'm gonna die." Fortunately, he walked away, attempting to find the potential intruder (there wasn't one), and when he returned, he appeared to be fully awake and responsive. For as much as I've written about gun violence and measures to reduce its frequency, I had honestly never thought about the potential dangers of a sleepwalker owning a firearm until this past Christmas. Now, a shooting/murder while one is sleepwalking is incredibly rare. There have been only 68 documented cases ...

I have a feeling, that before too long, Florida's state motto will be, "Don't ask questions. Just shoot." This wild and crazy trend continued recently when a federal appeals court upheld what has become known as the "physician gag rule," where doctors risk sanctions or even their license if they talk to patients about the dangers of guns. The American Bar Association has been adamant in their opposition to the law, as the organization released this message: "Preventive care through safety counseling is a pillar of modern medicine, and is vitally important to the health and welfare of patients." At least ten medical associations have also opposed the new law, including the American Psychiatric Association, which said that, "health professionals and health systems should ask about firearm ownership whenever clinically appropriate in the judgment of the physician." So, in Florida, citizens supposedly have free speech, yet doctors don...