ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997 TAG: 9703100093
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
ONE FOREIGN visitor buys a gun in Florida and heads to New York, where he shoots up the Empire State Building, and the president wants a law against foreign visitors buying or carrying firearms.
Meanwhile, the many thousands of foreign visitors who flock each year to Florida for sun, not guns, have their numbers thinned with some regularity by gun-toting residents of a state that led the way in relaxing concealed-weapons laws.
Who is in greater danger from whom?
In classic Clinton style, the president has taken a high-profile incident that appalls everyone and used it to propose a small remedy for a tiny piece of a huge problem, instead of using his office to articulate a larger vision about how the country might make its streets and homes safe from ever-deadlier firepower.
THE PRESIDENT'S executive order requiring child-safety locks on firearms carried by federal law-enforcement officers is also a small step, albeit in the right direction. Very few if any of the more than 10,000 unintentional shootings each year by children and teen-agers were with firearms left unattended by the feds.
Still, Clinton's order carries symbolic value. He has done what is within his power, and has issued a challenge to Congress to require safety locks on all guns sold in the United States.
Is there a gun enthusiasts' argument against the locks strong enough to outweigh parents' concern for keeping their children alive?
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines KEYWORDS: BRIEFLY PUT ...by CNB