Guns and Ribbons,

Some of you may have noticed the photo of the loop of white ribbon with a black stripe in the center that is posted in the upper left hand corner of Penigma.  I intend to have it posted there until such time as Gabrielle Giffords returns to Congress, recovered from her injuries, and until such time as the judicial process is concluded for the (alleged) shooter.  But this ribbon is not ONLY in solidarity with the Congresswoman, it is for all of the victims of that terrible shooting.

In that interval I shall continue to advocate for the better funding and participation of the NCIS federal data base for gun checks, and for the other legislative efforts to mitigate gun violence and to keep guns out of the hands of people who are not allowed legally to own guns.  This comes in the same week where in Minnesota we have a Republican effort to abolish our state gun check requirements, over the protests of police and other public safety spokespersons.  And where we have the sentencing of a criminal who used our existing gun laws to engage in gun running and money laundering between Minnesota and Mexico drug cartels. It was by filling out the forms required by the federal government that the ATF was able to track those firearms through the 'iron pipeline', evidence that efforts to track gun sales are effective.

As always, my personal appreciation and gratitude to the genius of editorial cartoonist Ed Stein, for his ability to clarify these issues visually.  His words that go with it on his blog site are well worth a read too.  There are a lot of excellent editorial cartoonists, but I think Ed stands head and shoulders among them.  Thank you Ed - and please visit his site using the blog roll link to Ed Ink!