Ardent gun enthusiasts — that relentless minority including the hierarchy of the National Rifle Association — believe that you shouldn’t be prevented from carrying your weapon of choice wherever you go. Church. School. The office. The local bar. The airport. Efforts to require gun registration are only efforts to turn law-abiding citizens into criminals. The Second Amendment is inviolate, usually in ways that any of the Ten Commandments are not. And towns ought to be able to require anyone living there to own guns.

I know this because I come from Georgia, which is one of the states in thrall to the NRA and where the noisy minority persist in setting the agenda over common sense. There is actually a town in Georgia that forces all residents to purchase guns if they wish to live there. No kidding. Georgia, like Texas, allows concealed weapons in the most unlikely places. And now the legislature is looking at a proposal to allow people who “accidentally” bring a gun into the security checkpoint at airports to avoid arrest. In Georgia, lawmakers and even clergymen have been arrested and had their weapons confiscated because they showed up in the security lines. Their universal excuse has been that they “forgot” they had a gun packed in their bags or in their jacket or wherever. That makes us all feel really good about the kind of people who are bearing guns, doesn’t it? Nothing is as heart-warming as the thought of a totally absent-minded, gun-totin’ citizen headed for his bar or to church or the airport. He’d make a swell driver on busy highways, too, wouldn’t he?

In response to the Georgia proposal, David Borer of the American Federation of Government Employees — representing TSA workers at the airport — is quoted as saying “The public has had 12 years’ notice that guns are prohibited … Sooner or later they need to take responsibility for violating the law that’s meant to protect our officers and the traveling pubic.”

I read a letter to the editor in our local paper a while back from a Granite Stater who was upset because the New Hampshire legislature had the temerity to debate — although it did not pass — a bill to require background checks for gun purchasers. Just another attempt to deprive law-abiding, would-be gun buyers of their God-given rights to purchase weapons anywhere, anytime without the hassle of “big” government interference. He also didn’t like registration fees because they are just another attempt to squeeze poor gun owners out of their holy, sacrosanct automatic weapons.

Whew. That’s a lot of worry about not a whole lot. You get the feeling that this fellow doesn’t like having to get a drivers license or pay auto registration fees either. After all, you ought to be able to just to buy and car and then drive it, dammit. Same with guns. Just buy one and shoot it; nobody’s business whether you have a license or the guy down the street has one. Guns, guns, guns.

The response to this foolishness — really this dangerousness — is too evident to belabor. And surveys repeatedly show us that a majority of Americans (among them a majority of NRA members) want background checks and safeguards on gun registration. It’s way, way past time to fix this sad, tragic dilemma as some states like New York have been attempting. And while no one honestly believes that these steps will settle the ghastly problems, there is little doubt they would at the least help. That’s more than enough reason to try it.