Worth discussing

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

The cover story this week, a list of 25 possible things to be done to help curtail gun violence in the U.S., was put together by the editorial staff at the Inlander, an alt-weekly newspaper like this one up in Spokane, Washington. We took a different look at the gun issue in Matt Bieker’s story about concealed weapons a few weeks ago (“Packin’ heat,” cover story, June 21). This is a complicated issue that warrants looks from a variety of perspectives.

And here’s the thing—Matt’s story and this week’s list have something in common, namely the underlying idea that this is an issue that needs careful discussion and analysis. It’s not as simple as “all guns are bad” or “the Second Amendment is holy.” It’s not black and white. There are some important shades of gray.

I think some of the suggestions on the list in this issue are no-brainer good ideas that should be implemented immediately. Some of the ideas strike me as blatantly unconstitutional. But all of them are at least worth discussing. Let’s keep the dialogue going.

One last, completely unrelated note: Anybody else run into this stupid summer cold that’s been going around? Damn thing won’t go away. I broke into six different coughing fits while writing this note. The nadir for me was on Fourth of July. All my friends were out barbecuing and swimming, and I was sitting at home coughing, sniveling and wheezing, drinking tea and watching junky old TV shows.

Stay away. Stay far away.