The conscience of youth

 So it was just another American weekend down in Indianapolis, and by that I mean, another fine display of calibration. Someone took a loaded weapon into a mall and opened fire, killing three people, and then someone else with a loaded weapon shot the shooter, and what a world, what a world.

Now you can't go to the mall without wondering if the shootout at the OK Corral will break out. Whoopee.

And, yes, the first someone probably would have killed more people if the second someone hadn't shot him, so good for the second someone. Still can't help wondering what happens the next time. The unforeseen tends to happen when bullets start flying around, much of it involving blood and death and, you know, cool stuff like that.

But, hey: America, right? Land of the free, home of the packing. Why, even some of our loonier politicians have taken to waving guns around in their campaign ads, as if their ability to wield deadly force will help them represent their constituents up there in Congress.

And who knows? Enough loonies get elected the next couple years, the rule of the gun might be the only rule left in what used to be America. Could happen.

Me, I like to think there are still enough non-loonies out there to keep that from happening, and some of them are -- gasp! -- college kids. You know, the ones we're always talking about when we shake our heads sadly and say "These kids today ..."

Well, one of those kids today is named Anthony Richardson.

He's a quarterback for the Florida Gators who wears No. 15.

Which is why it was an easy play to dub himself "AR-15," because he's got an arm, apparently, and you know how often QBs with an arm are said to have a "cannon," a "rocket-launcher," a "rifle."

Well, Anthony Richardson has decided that's grossly inappropriate, according to Deadspin's Carron Phillips. So many people are being gunned down by AR-15s these days in the land of the packing that, to Richardson, it just felt dirty to make light of it with a silly nickname. So he's decided to drop the "AR-15" moniker and just brand himself as "AR."

A college kid with a conscience. Who knew?