Re: Smart Guns
From: Joe Dees (joedees@addall.com)
Date: Tue Apr 18 2000 - 01:59:15 MDT
('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
>Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 20:58:48 -0700
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>From: "J. Goard" <wyattoil@foothill.net>
>Subject: Re: Smart Guns
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.com
>
>At 09:22 PM 4/8/00 -0700, Mr. Lorrey wrote:
>
>>I have an idea of my own; those who wish to buy guns who prove themselves
>too dense to lock them up when kids are in the house forfeit their right to
>keep and bear. We are losing twelve kids a day...That's waaay too many
>(4380 per year) when simple precautions by responsible adults (including
>the denial of gun possession to the irresponsible adults) could drastically
>reduce this number.
>
>But punishing such irresponsibles (including taking away their guns) before
>the fact, is clearly impossible without some kind of universal licensing
>and/or registration of weapons, plus a significant branch of law
>enforcement devoted to finding violators. And, according to many opponents
>of gun-control, such as L. Neil Smith, this makes it much easier for a
>government to disarm its citizens, and a disarmed citizenry is an important
>(if not *the* most important) factor in the rise of totalitarianism. Since
>totalitarian regimes have and do cause many more deaths than 4380 per year
>(especially if you include the casualties of war, poverty, and
>technological stagnation), and since the freest countries have periods of
>near-totalitarian behavior (Vietnam draft, War on Drugs), these are the
>questions you should answer:
>
>1) What better counterthreat do we have against Bill Clinton, Janet Reno,
>Barry McCaffrey, et al., than our own lethal force, our own privacy, and
>that of those around us? What better way to decrease the chance of Hitler
>happening here?
>
>2) Since we claim to have a very long-term perspective, what relative
>weights should we assign to a)some thousands of deaths projected for next
>year, most of which occur in specific settings easily avoidable by you and
>me, and b)some millions of deaths projected 10 or 30 years in the future,
>and much less avoidable by you and me?
>
This is a false dichotomy. Those who are found not to lock up their guns by something happening (like a kid finding one and running around with it0 should lose the right to keep and bvear, as they have demonstrated that they are incapable of exercising such a right prudently and responsibly. This does not require registration, just revocation subsequent to violations coming to light.
>
>---------------------------------------------------
>Ellis Wyatt
>http://www.foothill.net/~wyattoil
>---------------------------------------------------
>The Beyond outside us is indeed swept away, and the
>great undertaking of the Enlightenment complete;
>but the Beyond *inside* us has become a new heaven
>and calls us to renewed heaven-storming.
> --Max Stirner
>---------------------------------------------------
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