Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 21:23:47 +1200 From: Craig Harding <crh@outpost.co.nz> To: "G. Adam Stanislav" <adam@whizkidtech.net>, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Oh no. The Guns Debate (was Re: On "intelligent people" and "dangers to BSD") Message-ID: <38DDD723.C01AD233@outpost.co.nz> References: <38DCC0D3.99AB6F28@originative.co.uk> <38DB8D34.1A750C81@originative.co.uk> <Pine.BSF.4.05.10003241806320.805-100000@acp.swbell.net> <20000325104927.B234@parish> <38DCC0D3.99AB6F28@originative.co.uk> <3.0.6.32.20000326005810.00a9dd00@mail85.pair.com>
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"G. Adam Stanislav" wrote: > Criminals would be less likely to commit violent crimes if they expected > most people to be armed and trained. So the solution for schoolyard gun massacres is for *all* kids to be armed at all times? > Frankly, I believe the law should not try to ban firearms. It should > require everyone except Buddhists to own and carry a firearm all the time. > And, of course, to know how to use it properly. And there's the flaw in your argument. In an ideal world, with everyone well-educated in the correct use of their firearm, your ideas might actually work. In the real world, where people are generally (a) lazy and (b) stupid all you get is lots of schoolyard shootings because parents don't know how to lock up guns, and foreign students getting shot for knocking on the wrong door and speaking in japanese. Not to mention a McDonalds full of dead bodies because everyone tried to shoot the spree killer, and missed, hitting the other diners. Fundamentally, you seem to be arguing for an arms race. The enemy (criminals) have guns, therefore we need guns. I'd argue that human history would demonstrate that such an arms race is not an effective process, except to the arms manufacturers. Frankly, the fervor americans show for gun ownership in the face of such overwhelming levels of gun-inspired violence is literally incomprehensible. From where I stand it can only be explained as some kind of national mental illness, or something in the water. -- C. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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