The Lesson

"I would think twice about going to a door that we don't know who lives behind."

This is the takeaway that Sumter County Councilman Charles Edens got from the shooting death of 12 year old T.J. Darrisaw on Halloween night? No wonder I didn't get any Trick-or-Treaters at my apartment.

But I would think that the lesson we should learn from this is that paranoid ex-convicts shouldn't be allowed to own firearms. Quentin Patrick, a 22 year old ex-convict, fired more than two dozen rounds "through his front door, walls and windows" after hearing two children knocking on his door. On Halloween.

I've never been a supporter of the Nanny-state solution to violence that says people shouldn't be allowed to own anything remotely dangerous because they might suddenly snap, and go on a multiple-murder spree, but convicts with possible mental disorders (a man who claimed he was Patrick's brother said he believed Patrick was suffering from post-traumatic stress) are something of an exception to my general rule of "let's wait until someone's shown themselves irresponsible before we take the decision out of their hands."