From: Michael S. Lorrey (mike@datamann.com)
Date: Fri Mar 17 2000 - 16:00:53 MST
Joe Dees wrote:
> >Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2000 09:32:39 -0500
> >From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@datamann.com>
> >To: extropians@extropy.com
> >Subject: Re: What are the reasons for killing?
> >Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
> >
> >Robert Owen wrote:
> >
> >> Joe E Dees wrote:
> >>
> >> > I favor keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals,
> >> > proven intimidating abusers, and the mentally incompetent and/or
> >> > deranged, and ONLY them. I have no problem whatsoever with
> >> > RESPONSIBLE gun ownership by the general citizenry (I own five
> >> > of them).
> >>
> >> So then WHAT is this persistent debate about, anyway? What
> >> person with normal awareness of public safety requirements
> >> and of the incidence of human injury and death by means of
> >> firearms could object on rational grounds to the following?
> >>
> >> 1] Convicted hyperaggressive felons should be denied legal
> >> ownership of any lethal weapon, even if the enforcement
> >> of the law has intractable practical limitations.*
> >
> >Already the law. This is actually the easiest one to enforce, as you probably
> >know from the NRA pioneered Operation Exile that took place in Richmond, and the
> >effect it had on crime.
> >
> To enforce any of these requires a purchase-prohibited registry.
Which already exists and has been operating for two years. The Insta-Check system, which was forced into the Brady Law by the NRA over the opposition from HCI, is a purchase prohibited database. Contrary to the law, Klinton & Kompany are trying to use its audit information trails as an illegal and unconstitutional national registration system.
> >> 2] Spousal or child abusers who have either been convicted
> >> of aggravated assault, assault with intent, etc. or known
> >> by the Child Protective or Welfare Agencies locally to be
> >> violent by history should be likewise denied ownership.
> >
> >Violent by history? Who gets to make the history?
> >
> The abusers make their own; others just recognize it.
I've seen many instances where spouses fabricate evidence against their husbands. Even at the highest levels. Caroline and Chuck Douglas, two of the top lawyers in NH, (and Chuck is on the state Supreme Court) had a really nasty divorce, where Caroline lost her divorce claims against Chuck, and lost in her opinion of the value of their shared law firm. She has now been convicted of fabricating evidence, claiming
abuse, fabricating harassing phone calls to herself, etc.. I won't say this is the norm, as there is plenty of abuse that does go on, but this is used for a cover often enough that its not just to take this at face value without a thorough hearing in a courtroom.
> >> 6] ANYONE known by properly constituted authority to be
> >> legally irresponsible in the use of firearms for ANY purpose,
> >> including collecting, selling, trading or the mechanical
> >> alteration of firearms should be denied ownership.
> >
> >Collecting guns is a legally irresponsible behavior? Who made you god, or Freud?
> >
> Responsible adults should be able to obtain the firearms they need. Who needs twenty thousand? Members of the National Alliance, serving as arsenals?
The exercise of one's rights, according to the Supreme Court, is not determined by a person's needs. You don't need to vote, or open your yap every time you have something to say, but it is your right.
> >
> >> 7] The retailing of firearms should be limited to, without
> >> exception, state-owned stores, just as in some states
> >> liquor sales are currently regulated.
> >
> >So when the state decides that it doesn't want people to buy guns anymore it
> >closes the stores. Beautiful. Extremely extropic. NOT.
> >
> Private and dealer sales should be allowed, so long as they are from and to responsible adults, after checking a purchase=prohubuted registry.
Regulation of any trade occuring between two private individuals who are residents of the same state is not the province of the federal government. It only has control over interstate trade. As a rule, anyone who desires to limit their own liability will take their gun to a gunshop and have the gunshop perform the InstaCheck. Insurance companies, if they found this to be a significant liability issue, would be
justified in mandating this on any policies they sell. I think its telling that we have yet to hear of any companies which do so. They must not see it as a significant issue.
> >> 8] ALL firearms owned by private individuals should be com-
> >> prehensively registered with an appropriate local law-
> >> enforcement agency. Private trading should be banned.
> >
> >SO when the state decides it doesn't want you to own them anymore, it knows
> >where to go to confiscate them, just as it has already done so in New York,
> >California, Britain, and Australia. Banning private trade means that you ban
> >private property. The state controls who owns it.
> >
> Trade should not be banned if it is between individuals not included in a purchase-prohibited registry, but guns should be fired before sals, as NY Gov. Pataki urges, to aid in locating perpetrators. I think that registration for machines designed for the express purpose of easy and rapid long-distance killing should be registered if machines designed for transportation are.
If you claim that that is the only purpose of guns, then I claim that knives are machines developed for that purpose too. Are all knives going to be registered?
> >
> >> 9] Penalties for first time and repeated offenders should be
> >> equal to or greater in severity than those that currently
> >> apply to violators of motor vehicle laws. A point system
> >> or other device could be used to determine when a license
> >> must be suspended.
> >
> >Since motor vehicles kill and injure far more people, even though there are
> >fewer cars than guns, this is totally unjustifiable.
> >
> More people are killed in New York by guns than by autos.
Really, do you have a reference?
> >
> >> 10] First time gun owners should be tested by written and
> >> optical exams just as motor vehicle owners are now. It
> >> would not be required to be relicensed unless a violation
> >> of firearms laws, statutes and ordinances was a matter of
> >> court record. (See -8- and -9-)
> >
> >Who gets to decide what the test is, and are test results going to be public
> >documents?
> >
> I'm sure the NRA would be consulted on the tests, as would law enforcement and firearm manufacturers. People should not be afraid of a little study which can only benefit them by insuring that they know how to operate the firearm safely and properly - we're not talking about Jim Crow poll tests, here. The reason one is included in a purchase-prohibited registry should not be included as part of the registry.
What does your last sentence mean, it seems self contradictory.
> >> I cannot stress enough the revulsion I feel toward those who
> >> reject such rational social controls on the ostensible basis of
> >> some abstract idealist polity or manifesto using ad populum
> >> terms like "freedom" and "rights" to induce emotional support
> >> for irresponsible firearm ownership among those who are either
> >> socially incompetent, illiterate or simply too immature to under-
> >> stand the implications of such terms when applied to the real
> >> world.
> >
> >Then you are no extropian.
> >
> It is not up to you to decide who is and is not extropian, but to attempt to do so is itself unextropian.
Based on the Extropian Principles ( http://www.extropy.org/extprn3.htm ):
1. Perpetual Progress — Seeking more intelligence, wisdom, and effectiveness, an indefinite lifespan, and the removal of political, cultural, biological, and
psychological limits to self-actualization and self-realization. Perpetually overcoming constraints on our progress and possibilities. Expanding into the universe and advancing
without end.
2. Self-Transformation — Affirming continual moral, intellectual, and physical self-improvement, through critical and creative thinking, personal responsibility, and
experimentation. Seeking biological and neurological augmentation along with emotional and psychological refinement.
3. Practical Optimism — Fueling action with positive expectations. Adopting a rational, action-based optimism, in place of both blind faith and stagnant pessimism.
4. Intelligent Technology — Applying science and technology creatively to transcend "natural" limits imposed by our biological heritage, culture, and environment.
Seeing technology not as an end in itself but as an effective means towards the improvement of life.
5. Open Society — Supporting social orders that foster freedom of speech, freedom of action, and experimentation. Opposing authoritarian social control and favoring
the rule of law and decentralization of power. Preferring bargaining over battling, and exchange over compulsion. Openness to improvement rather than a static utopia.
6. Self-Direction — Seeking independent thinking, individual freedom, personal responsibility, self-direction, self-esteem, and respect for others.
7. Rational Thinking — Favoring reason over blind faith and questioning over dogma. Remaining open to challenges to our beliefs and practices in pursuit of
perpetual improvement. Welcoming criticism of our existing beliefs while being open to new ideas.
As I see it, his multi-point post violates every one of these principles.
> >
> >> It is truly astonishing that, after the perhaps 2,500-year
> >> documentation of the human tendency to inflict violence on
> >> his own kind to achieve merely selfish ends, we still listen to
> >> those who advocate that some personal acquisitive desire
> >> should be regarded as superordinate to the welfare of the
> >> community upon which this individual depends. Any claim
> >> of privilege is forfeit by those whose very polemics are
> >> grounded in social indifference.
> >
> >Considering the proof that this 'personal acquisitive desire' actually
> >contributes to the safety and welfare of society, your argument is baseless. You
> >start your post here off stating reasonable and normal proposals of responsible
> >use, then you veer off into this wild, big brother, totalitarian rant that I
> >cannot fathom the origination of. Please explain why you subscribe to this list
> >instead of the more normally non-liberty based >H list.
> >--
> I guess you'll call him a statist, fascist, leftist zombie next. Killfiling and/or trying to chase off or intimidate those who have a different opinion from your own is hegemonistic, totalitarian, Borgian and quite typical of you, it seems.
If it walks like a duck....
--
TANSTAAFL!!!
Michael S. Lorrey
Member, Extropy Institute
http://www.extropy.org
Member, National Rifle Association
http://www.nra.org
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- General John Stark
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