Here continues a conversation that began with the comments on my 12/28/13 post, “Nancy Lanza, a mother tragic and infuriating.” One should also see the 12/29/13 post at lwk’s blog, “How would you prevent another Sandy Hook?” Three principles of Free Speech Handbook are prominent to me as I approach this writing. I myself must beware temptations to change the subject and filibuster, though filibuster rarely happens in writing. It is important that each participant deal with

———— ♦ ———— In West Baltimore, open carry is now Baltimore Gets Bloodier As Arrests Drop Post-Freddie Gray “Arrests were already declining before Freddie Gray died …” “Even before Gray’s death, police were making between 25 and 28 percent fewer arrests each month than they made in the same month last year.” “’Before it was over-policing. Now there’s no police,’ said Donnail ‘Dreads’ Lee, 34, who lives in the Gilmor Homes, the public housing complex where Gray, 25, was chased

A Nation of Cowards Jeffrey Snyder suggests that carrying a handgun is both a right and a duty of every law-abiding citizen. This is hard for me to relate to; as, for all practical purposes, no such people exist in my world. Gun lovers’ slogans include, “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” Forget laws; in my world, only outlaws have guns now. I have no impulse to join them. Snyder offers a fair assessment of the failure of gun control laws to keep guns out o