THE SIMPSONS ON GUN CONTROL: I’m sorry to say that I missed The Simpsons last night, but a reader sends this synopsis:

I’m surprised you haven’t blogged on this yet today, but the Simpsons last night had a story on gun control and self defense. It was a Treehouse of Horror Episode, with 3 stories. The second story had Lisa agitating for gun control after seeing a gravestone for someone who dies in the 1880’s with the inscription “I dream of a world without guns.” She imagines that he was a peaceful soul and convinces Springfield to ban guns.

As soon as everyone turns in their guns, Mayor Quimby announces to cheers that Springfield is defenseless. Then the dead guy who inspired Lisa rises from the dead and turns out to be Billy the Kid. He is joined by other old west villains and Kaiser Wilhelm. Together they terrorize Springfield until Homer gets a time machine from the Jerry Lewis-inventor guy, goes back in time to the day of the ban guns referendum, and gets everyone to shoot the graves of the returning dead just as they revive.

Wish I’d seen it.

UPDATE: Reader Steven Shivell says this description leaves out the ending:

After Future Homer came back in time to make everyone shoot the graves of the Dead people ANOTHER Future Homer wearing a very very cool future outfit (with a visor!!) comes back in time to tell everyone to throw away their guns, and that they were responsible for the end of the world. Moe (If i remember correctly) gets rather irritated and says “Enough Already” or something like that, and shoots the new Future Homer. The end of the story is that they have their guns.

Lane McFadden, meanwhile, has blogged the episode, noting: “So there’s no moral to this story. The people of Springfield needed guns to defend themselves, but preserving their guns also preserved great danger and risk of destruction. Hmm, sounds like…real life. No easy answers.” He also points out Moe’s attaction to “caveman hookers,” which was omitted from the accounts above. Porphyrogenitus meanwhile, emails on another Simpsons episode about weapons:

The best one was the one from years back with the Monkey’s Paw where Lisa

wishes for world peace, resulting in the elimination of all weapons, so

Koto at al (the tentacled aliens) take over armed with nothing better than

slingshots.

If I recall correctly, they were beaten by a board with a nail in it, and left prophesying that mankind would one day make a board and nail so big we would destroy ourselves. . . .

Boy, you want email, blog about The Simpsons.

UPDATE: A reader points out the devastating conclusion to Lane McFadden’s post: “Unfortunately, that leaves those of us in the Real World to come up with those answers, instead of relying on cartoons to explain complicated issues. Drat.” Drat, indeed.