No "Editor's Notes"� columns in quite a while, but here's one with mini-editorials about a few minor, non-controversial issues "” gun rights, rowdy OU students and immigration craziness.

Angry, drunken gun-packers?

Gun-rights advocates are at it again in Ohio. They've succeeded in getting a bill introduced in the Ohio Senate that would make it legal for people with concealed-carry licenses to bring their guns into bars and restaurants.

While the law, introduced as Senate Bill 239, would prohibit individuals with concealed firearms from actually drinking alcohol in the establishment, it's doubtful that the bill is intended to exclusively benefit that rare individual who patronizes a bar but declines to drink. And how is that provision going to be enforced anyway?

Rather, this is another step toward wiping away every last restriction on gun ownership, so that the Second Amendment, alone among the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights, should apply without restriction or qualification.

It's the sort of take-no-prisoners, blind-to-circumstance approach that paints a person like me, who backs gun rights with rational limitations, as a weak-kneed, anti-gun liberal in the eyes of gun-control opponents. Rather than liberals stealthily "taking our guns,"� as the fear-mongering gun lobby would have it, what has gradually been suppressed in the national conversation over gun rights is the voice of people who genuinely believe in strict gun control.

My position on guns, which once would have been considered middle-right (lots of rights, a few restrictions), is now the loony left if you listen to gun-rights supporters.

But I won't apologize for being skeptical about the rush to allow anyone, in almost any circumstance, to intermingle in public while surreptitiously packing a firearm. First, there's the creepiness factor. Why would a person feel compelled to carry a gun in the vast majority of the places in America where the prospects of having to use that gun are statistically negligible? Doesn't that seem like "“ excuse the expression "“ overkill?

Second, some of these gun people are really angry, and simple common sense suggests that it's a big mistake to allow people who are susceptible to fits of temper to have a deadly weapon at arm's reach.

I have keen memories of arguing with a gun-rights supporter about gun control in a bar in McCall, Idaho when I was in my 20s. The guy, a florid-complexioned dude with long, wavy red hair, got angrier and angrier, and finally stopped the conversation by pulling a revolver out of his coat pocket and slamming it on the bar. "You still want to argue?"� he demanded. I replied, "Well, no, I've decided that you're right"� and slowly edged away into the crowd.

I've always thought he helped prove my point.

Once you've seen one student"¦

Since the minor brouhaha at High Fest Saturday night, our Web site has been getting predictable comments from people decrying Ohio University student misconduct.

Here's one of the silliest comments (without any editing):

"So the idiots of OU get to have not 1 party but a total of 3 block parties???? Our children who are punished due to the "˜idiots' having a halloween block party and dont get to even celebrate Halloween on the actaul day its supposed to be celebrated. I think we cater a bit to much to the "˜idiots' who dont even live here year round, let alone work here. As a tax payer in Athens and a resident of 35 yrs I think its unreal how much the city allows them to get away with"¦ I dont get it."�

I would suggest that the author of this comment attend arraignments in Athens County Municipal Court on a typical day, and watch as a parade of mainly non-students begin their journey through the local criminal court system, charged with various violent, self-destructive and unseemly acts.

If I were a student, I would be upset if someone blamed me for the actions of a few morons lighting couches on fire in the streets, or the sheep-like bystanders who stand around and watch. Similarly, please don't judge me based on the actions of the numerous non-student miscreants who keep our county's justice system so busy.

Dark days in the sunniest state

If you have brown skin or other "Latino"� or Mexican features, you might try bypassing Arizona after its new immigration law goes into effect this summer. The law requires that law-enforcement officers demand proof of legal residence of anyone they "have a reasonable suspicion"� of being illegal (in other words, anyone who looks Hispanic or Mexican).

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon passionately condemned Arizona Senate Bill 1070 in an op-ed in the Washington Post on Saturday:

"As an immigration bill that nationally embarrasses Arizona becomes bad law, our best hope in my hometown is that the rest of America doesn't do to Arizona what Senate Bill 1070 requires our police officers to do to people with brown skin: "˜profile' them based on stereotypes and insufficient information."�

He ended the op-ed by calling those responsible for S.B. 1070 "bitter, small-minded and full of hate."�

I would add that the bogus "patriots"� who are fueling xenophobic laws like the Arizona immigration bill are terrified by what they see as the decline of the angry white demographic in American politics. The same thing is manifested in a Tea Party movement which is nothing more than an amorphous population of hard-right conservatives who found a catchy name for their movement and a sure way to grab media attention.

One of my oldest Ohio friends has lived in central Arizona for nearly three decades. He's married to a woman whose parents and extended family are from Mexico, and his own children could be mistaken as being from that country. Like other people with Mexican heritage in Arizona, my old pal's in-laws are starting to prepare for the day when they're pulled aside and detained for basically not being white (or black) enough.

No matter what the provocation (and no doubt the border situation has reached crisis levels), there's nothing positively American about singling people out for special attention based on nothing more than their skin color and facial features.

The fact that the so-called Patriot and Tea Party movements, with substantial Republican support, are responsible for inflaming public opinion enough to pass this kind of law should scare the hell out of anyone who still purports to covet the ideals this country was founded upon.

I won't get too anxious, however, since legislation like S.B. 1070 might be the trigger to finally awaken the American public to how the extreme right is trying (and to some extent succeeding) to remake our nation into a bastion of reaction, racism and intolerance. Not the mention these folks' place in the sun is rapidly coming to an end, as a result of the very demographic trends they're so worried about.