European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday september 28, 1991 the stars and stripes William f. Buckley Page 13 commentary even school kids can t escape gun menace rim re a _ As things Are moving after two or three More disarmament conferences with the soviet Union it al., the largest standing army in the world is Likely to be new York City schoolchildren. 60 minutes made it All very real. Fifteen High schools in new York City Are not very different in appearance from Federal prisons the principal reason being that the Little Angels tend to bring pistols to school. As they file into the school buildings schoolchildren go through Metal detecting devices in no Way different from those we re accustomed to seeing in movies about prisons. The round figures Are nationally an average of six children per Day Are shot to death. A commentator wrote recently that the reputation of the United states abroad is the result of two emanations. The first is of the United states As the superpower the can do Industrial giant Cross us and you be had it unless you re a North vietnamese. The other a the so called a a soft impression a is that of a nation that is generous that takes in immigrants who a generation later arc College educated and perhaps millionaires a nation renowned for its search for Justice and Liberty. That emanation is threatened these Days by what foreigners observe. We Are overwhelmed by pornography illegitimacy illiteracy insolvency drugs and guns. Conservatives Are associated with the second amendment guarantee of the right to Bear arms. But conservatives have failed to come Forward with Laws that Are designed substantially to reduce the free flow of guns. The camera of Morley safer focuses on a Little girl age of 9. A if you wanted to buy a gun would you know where to go get it a a Little smile and the head nods. A second girl even younger. A would you a a yes a the child s voice comes in. A How much would you need to pay for it a a a a undred  in new York City the handgun Law is As Tough As any in the country. There Are Only 29,000 licensed pistol carriers and an interesting note a record of not a single infraction by anyone licensed. The Laws specify Tough treatment for anyone caught with a gun. Yet schoolchildren seem to have no problem at All in finding pistols. And these pistols Are regularly used to kill other children plus migrant adults. Ellen Goodman the Brady Bill so much discussed a few months ago asks Only that people seeking to buy firearms submit their names so that Sellers can ascertain if they have criminal records. The difficulty Here lies in spotty and eccentric records by the different states. It is easier to locate a car owner in new York state than a convicted Felon. The result of this is that anyone who wishes to buy a gun can probably outwit the Brady system by going to a state whose research is Sloppy. Or presumably he or she can get the gun for a undred dollars on the Black Market. We Are talking about a country in which there Are an estimated 55 million handguns i own four. It is wrong to suppose that their existence is always without purpose. The elderly couple in the Bronx who sleep with a pistol at their bedside can sleep where others frequent victims of muggers and hous Breakers and thieves do not. Several years ago in Massachusetts an Experiment was proposed. The Law would let you alone to do anything in your House or in your place of business you wished your Home could be a Garrison. But if you were caught with a pistol other than in your House or Home the Law would throw the Book at you. Obviously allowances need to be made for Hunters travelling to the Fields with their shotguns or rifles. But the idea is first rate. The purpose of a firearm is self defense. If you need a firearm to defend yourself on the streets then civil society has broken Down a which indeed it has in parts of new York City and elsewhere after dark. But Progress Isnit being made when schoolchildren not yet in their teens can safely buy a gun for $100. There should be a mobilization of Public sentiment on the question and no prison sentence strikes us As verse vere to mete out to those who sell guns to children. I he soft Appeal of american culture has great difficulty in sustaining the vision of children Young enough to be spanked threatening their teachers with a 9mm automatic. And How when you come Down to it do you effectively punish 10-year-Olds caught with pistols in their pockets suspend them from school Send them to a reformatory 1 he gun problem has to be approached at the other end with focus on the suppliers. C univ Ursill toss Syndicate . Needs common thread in shared history certain members of my family a who shall remain nameless a have suggested a bumper sticker for my car i Brake for Antiques. This of course is something of an exaggeration. I prefer to think of the afternoons i be spent stopping along the Back roads of new England As adventures in social history. As i have patiently explained to this same family what we Call Antiques Are a record of the real lives that real people led. They Are a kind of Down Home proof of the fact that people beat eggs drank out of cups and used cupboards. But what i tend to bring Home from my much maligned jaunts Are words. The words of other americans captured in magazines and books. And occasionally if i make a hit a not of the automobile variety a i even get some perspective on history. This time in the Musty Corner of a store on the old route 1, i found an even Muster Hundred year old pictorial history of the United states. The author of this popular Book one James d. Mccabe wrote when historians were unencumbered by what Are now called the a storm troopers of political  so his text brought Back a time when even a colourless and relatively straightforward writer would describe the american past Unselt consciously As a a grand history a a record of the highest achievements of humanity a the noblest most thrilling and glorious Story Ever penned on  in such Star spangled Praise Mccabe not Only called this a a Christian nation but one which was happily a secured for the language and free influences of the All conquering Anglo Saxon  to read this now when Christopher Columbus a the Man and the Day a Are being debated is to see How attitudes and ideas become antique. Speaking in the 1890s, my treasured Mccabe did refer to some wrongs the White Man inflicted on the natives but this is not to put it mildly. Dances with wolves. He tended to regard the a Savages As us fairly uncooperative. Women show up in this text rarely and african americans make Cameo appearances As victims of slavery or subjects of policy. And though this author tipped his hat More than once to religious tolerance a coming out squarely against the Salem Witch trials a he rather casually referred to Joseph Smith the Leader of the mormons As a a cunning  but what was most striking is what was most typical of my yellowed history. A Century ago the Story of America was cast As an Onward and upward tale of great men and their institutions and their Battles. Our history was one of glory and Progress a Parade of presidents each of whom came with a Fine resume and nearly All of whom did the right thing. The text is vastly out of Date with our sensibilities. We Are More contentious now. Even about our past. I keel no nostalgia in my antique Reading for the Comfort and coherence that came from this limited View of the great men s March of Lime. But what is typical of our present is the difficulty in agreeing on our past writing an american history. What is typical of our Era is the cacophony of voices Onee left out now scrapping for a piece of the historic pie to Call their own. Its a task that resonates in politics As Well As education in contemporary life As Well As history. C an we have diversity and Unity in these United states what antique arguments will cause our descendants to smile smugly when they find them in a country store on a future afternoon c the Boston Globe