Apparently, another mayor of a large US city has decided that he can accomplish what no other government has been able to do - lower the rate of violent crime by banning guns.

In Seattle, Greg Nickels is imposing a ban on guns in all city owned venues. It's not law - that would be a direct violation of Washington State Constitution, but this rule would eject citizens from the properties that they own, if they don't leave or surrender their guns.

The other Washington tried it - it hasn't worked there.

The Brits tried it - it hasn't worked there.

. . . the English rate of violent crime has been soaring since 1991. Over the same period, America’s has been falling dramatically. In 1999 The Boston Globe reported that the American murder rate, which had fluctuated by about 20 percent between 1974 and 1991, was “in startling free-fall.”

Banning guns isn’t the answer. Prohibition never works.

Look at the Prohibition of alcohol – it made a minor social problem into a morass of mobs, gun violence and crime.

Drug prohibition? That’s working well, huh? Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) officers denounce that plan. Drug use actually rises (forbidden fruit, you know!), and the prohibition created the usual black market, complete with increased prices, turf protection, and an entire Drug War industry, replete with overtly (give me $$, and I won’t bust you) corrupt, and morally (lying to make a bust, entrapment) corrupt cops and officials.

Gun bans won’t get the guns out of the hands of criminals and nutburgers. Witness the Brits’ example. Gun violence went up, and otherwise law-abiding citizens were prosecuted for possession.

You know, my dad carried a gun to school, at least in the winter, when they risked attack by wild animals. Parked his horse under a tree, and his gun in the cloakroom.

I went to high school in a rural farm community, where a huge percentage of the student autos in the parking lot were pick-‘em-up trucks, most with gun racks in the back window. And yes, many had guns in the racks. And I’m only in my 40s.

Despite the widespread availability of guns, gun violence was not virtually unknown.

So, what changed, you may ask. For one thing, attitudes about guns – more regulation, which always makes things more attractive to some; and with the idea that guns are bad, came a total lack of education about gun use and safety. Most people these days are unaware of how to operate, clean or store a gun. Even fewer realize what guns can or cannot do. They see TV, where people are shot and die from ridiculously minor wounds, and they see li’l bitty guns, with li’l bitty bullets, blow holes through concrete walls. All of which leads to total ignorance, just a lot of fear.

It’s not the guns that cause violence. A few years ago, a whacko in the Seattle area attacked a woman with a sword. In one highly amusing story, a Seattle activist attacked the mayor with a megaphone.

People have killed each other with hammers, autos, knives, medical equipment, every poison known to man, and with our bare hands. We’ve planned or written about killing with legs of lamb, icicles, and any number of unlikely household objects.

I fully expect that Seattle’s pet moron will try to work his way through the entire list of possible weapons.

When they came for the guns, I didn’t do anything; I wouldn’t own a gun. When they came for ricin, I didn’t do anything; I wouldn’t own any deadly poisons. When they came for the knives, I didn’t do anything; I wouldn’t own a knife. And when they came for our hands, there was no one left to help . . . or at least, no one who could get a grip on the situation.

Do not go gentle into that good night, people . . . Rage against the Machine!