This is somewhere between a red herring and besides the point, but I couldn’t help noticing that the Daily News (The Mercury) had two photos Friday that seemed to glorify gun violence, on the day that the double-killing was discovered.

One, is city staffer holding the nozzle as if it is a firearm. Innocent enough, right? I shot the same figure without the nozzle.

Two is a Stanford baseballer holding the bat as if it is a kind of weapon. Maybe this is fencing pose as much as a rifle. Or, I will retract this if it is part of his normal batter’s box routine. I doubt Norbert von der Groeben, who I’ve known since at least 1984 said “Hold the bat as if it is a rifle, this is Florida, and your are exercising your stand-your-grounds rights” but even so. I have 10,000 baseball cards and few have this pose.

I think the media could do better on these things.

And outro with:
Noel Perrin, “Giving Up the Gun”
Cheryl Wheeler, “maybe it’s the guns” (which I read from at school board)

I left a voice mail to Mario Dianda the editor.

and1: Campy is in the wrong, but probably not lethal here.