HURRICANE KATRINA PROMPTS GROWTH IN GUN OWNERSHIP: A reader sent me this NPR story from last week, which I had missed. In part this was driven by the sensationalized reporting from New Orleans, of course. It’s funny that most journalistic organs oppose private gun ownership, but can’t resist sensationalizing crime in ways that encourage people to be armed.

UPDATE: Reader Sean Malloy emails that a different NPR story led him to join the NRA some years ago:

In 1999 or so, NPR ran a story about an armed gang of about 30 men in Bosnia rounding up all the military-aged men/boys in a village and executing them in their village square. About 300 were killed.

The thought “it would take a whole lot more than 30 men to kill 300 villagers in an armed society” occurred to me, and I joined the NRA that evening.

NPR execs would have puppies if they knew.

I like puppies.