I Don't Recall Chuck Schumer Calling for Sword Control...

Naturally, after the Aurora movie theater massacre, there are numerous ill-thought out calls for restrictions on firearm ownership being put forth by the punditry.  Here is a case in point.

“When it is no longer safe to attend a movie without being mowed down by automatic weapons recently purchased by someone visiting a psychiatrist for possible mental illness, it is time to reexamine the beliefs we are holding so dear . . . I can’t figure out how assault weapons have a place in our society.” 

I won't get too deep into rebutting that other than to dredge up this story that I remember quite well from my days as a wee lad.

A homeless Cuban refugee, chanting and apparently deranged, went on a rampage with a sword aboard a Staten Island ferryboat yesterday and killed two people and wounded nine others before being subdued by a retired police officer at gunpoint.

Wielding a two-foot ornamental blade apparently purchased in Times Square, the assailant pursued, hacked and stabbed victims on two decks of the rumbling, 310-foot ferry, the Samuel I. Newhouse, at about 8:45 A.M. as the boat passed the Statue of Liberty, bound from Manhattan to Staten Island.

So let's see if we can't revise Mr. Ponder's ruminations

“When it is no longer safe to attend a movie take the ferry without being mowed down slashed by automatic weapons samurai swords recently purchased by someone visiting a psychiatrist for possible mental illness, it is time to reexamine the beliefs we are holding so dear . . . I can’t figure out how assault weapons sharp blades have a place in our society.” 

Also note, it was a man with a gun that stopped the killing spree on that ferry boat in 1986, who just happened to be a retired cop. Folks were lucky there just happened to be that retired cop onboard.  But there is no reason that it needed to be a retired cop, it could have been any responsible, self-trained citizen.  And the odds would have been greater that more carnage didn't take place if New York wasn't a gun control paradise and ferry riders didn't have to rely on mere luck.