There’s a commercial playing on K-Love that is urging people not to commit “gun crimes.” The commercial is a dramatization of a courtroom proceeding, in which a young man is sentences to five years in prison because of his gun crime. A little girl’s voice plays: “My brother was sentenced to five years in prison because he committed a gun crime. At the same time, he sentenced me to five years of walking home from school alone.”

This is just as bad as the nonsense about Hate Crimes. (Because, you know, it’s worse when you kill people out of hate than out of love.) Gun Crimes. Whatever happened to old-fashioned crimes? Suppose I break into someone’s house and walk out with $15,000 of electronics. Is my crime somehow made worse because I had a gun on me? If I shoot someone, sure, that makes the crime worse, but does the gun itself make the crime worse? What if I carried a knife? What if I stabbed someone?

What is it about a gun that so terrifies people? I grew up around them. I know they’re dangerous weapons, but so are aluminum baseball bats. “But, the only purpose for a gun is to kill.” No. Some people just like shooting. It relaxes them. I know a lot of people who own guns, and not one who committed murder.