A spokesperson for the Arizona Division of the U.S.

Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

stated, “It is the West and the West was won by the gun,”

in what seemed like an attempt to give reason to the

mayhem from the grocery store parking lot in Tucson

to the office building parking lot in North Phoenix

on the very day “Gabby” Giffords testified in Washington

for gun control as representatives of the people of

America politely refrained, if they even knew or cared,

from asking her about the semi-automatic Glock she

admittedly and ironically owned, like the one Jared Lee

Loughner used to blow a hole in her head. But after all,

she had been the Tombstone Territory’s representative

and like the man said, “It is the West and the West was

won by the gun.”  Gary Cooper stood tall and handsome

as he drew his gun at High Noon and the Academy of

Motion Picture Arts and Sciences stood, pulled out their

Glocks and went down in a blaze of glory not seen

since the Shootout at the OK Corral. Years before on

Stony Island Avenue on the South side of the city of

Chicago a father who had just sat through a double

feature of High Noon and OK Corral stood, pointed

his Colt 45 fingers at his son and blew him to smithereens

as the ten-year-old laughed and  threw himself against their

car in the parking lot where years later little

boys really would blow each other to bits.