When Sex Offenders Have Guns...

So I have this googly thing that shows me any news with the keywords "librarian" or "libraries" in it. And up pops, "Libraries and 'sex offenders'." So of course I gots to see it.

And, total surprise, it's some rant about freedom written by a guy who was clearly beaten with a whole sackful of crazy. A judge ruled that Albuquerque (NM) can't ban sex offenders from libraries. The author believes that any government interference is wrong, even if that interference keeps pedophiles from raping children.

But that's not the part that shocked me. Yes, you read that right: having someone say that it's wrong for the government to keep convicted pedophiles away from children is not what shocked the.effing.librarian.

The shocking part is that the author says,

"Government has no legitimate authority to violate a person's rights.
...
Aggressors should face the near certainty that their intended victim is armed... They should also face the near certainty that everyone within earshot is armed as well.
...
If you are an aggressor (sexual or not), being dead is often the proper condition."

And since I infer from the term "armed" that he means firearms, I was shocked at the thought of anyone discharging a firearm in the library. Yes, that was the shocking part, that the story seemed to advocate for personal firearm freedom and the personal responsibility to kill sex offenders on site, even in the library.

For a comparison, look at the following range of loudness:

• a quiet library (which is certainly not your library), 55dB;
• a cell phone playing Lil Wayne (featuring Eminem) [ack!], 95 dB;
• a KISS concert, 130 dB;
• a gunshot 140 dB.

And that doesn't take into account that the first-through-fourth shots aren't even going to be lethal; I mean at least two shots are going in his 'nads. So we're talking at least five 140 dB gunshots in the library. What if this happens during storytime? And Miss Lisa is reading Goodnight Moon to the toddlers?

"Goodnight clocks. And goodnight socks."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Goodnight sex offenders' cocks."

To be fair, the story is about "sex offenders" who aren't all pedophiles. Some are otherwise hard working and decent people who were convicted of having sex with a minor, or caught exposing their private parts in public and are here reading this because they typed "libraries and sex offenders" into the search engine like most normal, decent hard working people do.