Why Didn't WE Think of That?

The following is from Opinion Journal by James Taranto:

A Simple Plan

"A former warlord who has long lived by his gun was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu on Friday and immediately ordered residents of the Somali capital to get rid of their weapons," the Associated Press reports.

This is sheer genius! The Mog is plagued by violence, and a lot of violence involved weapons, so why not have everyone just get rid of their weapons? Oh sure, there'll still be fist fights and shoving matches and hair-pulling and stuff like that, but it sure beats getting shot.

It's so simple, we're amazed that no one's thought of it before. Oh wait, someone has:

*** QUOTE ***

Previous efforts to get residents to give up their weapons have been unsuccessful.

*** END QUOTE ***

From the AP story, it isn't clear why the previous efforts were unsuccessful, but here is how Mayor Mohamed Dheere plans to go about it:

*** QUOTE ***

"No weapons are allowed in the city," Dheere, who spent 16 years as a warlord struggling for power in this Horn of Africa nation, said at his inauguration ceremony. "Anyone who violates this directive will be punished."

The new police chief, Abdi Qeybdiid, also called for residents to disarm Friday, and said cars with blacked-out or tinted windows must go.

"Anyone who fails to abide by these rules will be brought before the court," he said--a surprising assertion in a city that has seen little more than chaos for more than a decade.

*** END QUOTE ***

Apparently the people who give up their weapons are going to round up the people who don't give up theirs, haul them into court and punish them. This will work great, just as long as it doesn't occur to the people who still have weapons to use them.


---good point!

The Gunslinger