Panhandle Fantasies

The grisly Billings murders have their sensational aspects, which is why the news media keep desperately flogging it with breathless "breaking news" cable TV reports and front-page headlines. At bottom, however, we've always thought it was merely a story of a bunch of profoundly stupid low-lifes who committed an unspeakable crime with astonishing clumsiness, and left a household full of children bereft.

That's about it. We've seen no profound public policy issues in any of this.

But reformed ad-man Mark O'Brien found one for the Pensacola News Journal. He leaned back in his columnist's chair and endured more than three-plus hours of a videotaped interview of Hugh Wiggins, one of two husbands snagged simultaneously by accused accessory-after-the-fact, Pamela Long Wiggins.

One thing O'Brien learned is that Hugh Wiggins' "good friend" -- alleged trigger man and presumed lame-brain of the conspiracy, Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. -- thought Hugh Wiggins was some sort of Mafia big-wig. This was an incorrect thought, of course, as anyone with eyes can tell.

For heavens' sake, look at the man! No one with any sense would allow this guy to bag groceries, much less be the conduit for a "Mexican drug cartel."

So, where's the public policy issue? Writes O'Brien, Wiggins developed his reputation as a "made guy" due --

to the fact that he owns lots of guns, partly because he likes weapons and partly because he fears "armed insurrection" if the United States doesn't change its ways.

"I love machines. Why do I have three bikes in the shop? I like machinery," said Wiggins, who intensified his gun collecting out of concern that President Barack Obama would push for gun control. "It looked to me like the Second Amendment was going to be in jeopardy."

Holy cow! Probably half the people in the Florida panhandle have the same political opinions as this goon.

Which makes one wonder.... Just how many more Hugh Wiggins are lurking out there among the Obama-hating masses of the Florida panhandle, busily fondling their joy sticks while fantasizing that they're defending the Constitution? And, what more do you suppose the Florida Legislature will do enable them?