Socrates and the Press

Over the Holidays I reread Gorgias, the debate Socrates had with the Sophists, today we would most likely call them politicians. Anything to get elected. It evoked the logic of the Greeks some two and a half millennia ago.

Then I read the piece in the NY Times about the Gannett paper in Westchester which printed an interactive map of every person with a gun license in Westchester and the surrounding counties. Now I do not know NY Law on the matter but in New Jersey one must have a gun license to have a Daisy BB gun. Not an AK47 or M16, but yes a BB gun. Thus the nexus between abiding by the law and having a firearm does not exist. The nexus between a gun license and the right to then buy a gun may exist but the possession of such gun is not in evidence. Socrates would have a field day with the morons who put this together.

I suspect that most individuals who have a gun license may have a gun but not all. Again in New Jersey they may like me have a single dated Daisy BB rifle in New Hampshire, but no heavy armament of any kind in New Jersey. (Just to let the folks know, the Daisy is to keep the deer from my daylilies, but it seems the newly imported wolves have done a great job). Yet I suspect that in Newark the murders for the most part were committed by unlicensed individuals. One does not go out and get a license for such a purpose, one gets a license to not break the law, or to obey the law, I suspect it is the same thing. I am not a gun fan, never used one other than having been trained, never liked the things, but that is my opinion. Upcountry they actually hunt and eat the result. I will stay with store bought stuff.

I read the comments and surprisingly they were overly negative. What purpose does this serve. Perhaps reckless endangerment by targeting homes a potential sources of weapons. Or homes weaponless. In either case there is no purpose, only the self aggrandizement one finds all too often in the Press. Perhaps it makes someone feel good, why not publish the names of all physicians dispensing oxycodone. None f this makes any logical sense.The consequences may be deadly, the positive effect is zero, and the problem is not avoided. Well it is our  Press after all.