Partners in Crime

Yesterday, The New York Times editorialized against a sneaky move by House Republicans that would bar the use of federal funds to enforce a law requiring that childproof trigger locks be supplied with every gun sold.

The chief sponsor of this idiocy is Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R.CO), who is the House's answer to Sen. Rick Sanctimonious as the chamber's best imitation of the south end of a north-bound horse. Rep. Musgrave argued that trigger locks make "personal protection more costly."

This is another example of the gun lobby at work. It's good to see The Times editorializing forthrightly against that lobby, but the paper did not go far enough.

While there are many good people who join the NRA and similar organizations because they are hunters or gun collectors (as your editor was for a time in his youth) or target shooters, it is time to stand up and say bluntly that the leaders of these groups are the witting or unwitting allies of gun runners, drug dealers, organized crime and yes, even terrorists. And so are the members of Congress and other elected officials who run to do their bidding.