Posted 11:01 AM by Floyd

It's time for the Mercury News to lecture us awful people about gun control! (But there's no such thing as liberal media bias.)

For novelist Richard North Patterson, a nation's empathy -- its capacity to feel another's experience as evidenced in its laws and culture -- is a measure of its humanity and sanity.

By this measure, Patterson says, the United States ``suffers from a failure of empathy'' by failing to enact laws protecting victims of gun violence.

The US also suffers from a failure of empathy by failing to enact laws prohibiting fires.

``Since the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963,'' he says, ``more Americans have been killed by guns than all the Americans lost in all the wars of the 20th century.''

But .. weren't a lot of the people killed in wars also killed by guns?

Maybe Patterson should go plead his case in Pyongyang.

Tonight, Patterson -- former trial lawyer and advocate for victims of domestic abuse -- brings the gun debate to downtown San Jose.

What a guy; he's an "advocate" for women who get beat up by men -- up until the point where an abused woman might want to defend herself with a gun. Oh well, at least he's empathetic.

Oh, and there is no liberal media bias.

His new political novel, ``Balance of Power,'' takes on the gun debate, as well.

The thriller is the last in his trilogy about Democrat Kerry Kilcannon, who lost his brother and almost his life to gun assailants. Now president, Kilcannon wants to end gun violence and to make Lara Costello, a Mexican-American journalist, first lady.

Returning to the Bay Area after the White House wedding, the Costello family -- Lara's mother, sister and little niece -- are gunned down at the San Francisco International Airport.

The killer is the murdered sister's abusive husband, who buys the assault weapon without a background check at a gun show. He also buys especially lethal bullets, capable of clawing apart human organs and slicing the hands of emergency-room surgeons.

I hate those especially lethal bullets. They're killing people even after the victims are dead! I prefer to be shot by moderately lethal bullets.

If only guns were against the law. No one who would murder three people would even think of breaking the law by acquiring a gun!

The plot parallels real-life figures and tragedies, says Patterson, 56, who has homes on Martha's Vineyard and in San Francisco.

Who would know more about real life than a limousine liberal from Martha's Vineyard!

...

A board member of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Patterson says he distinguishes between unlawful gun purchases and legal gun-ownership with background checks.

Oh, so Patterson is not just some concerned nut. He's an anti-gun activist.

Just remember, there is no liberal media bias.