Eddie Eagle .eq. Joe Camel and other myths, was Re: GUNS: Why here?

From: Joe Dees (joedees@addall.com)
Date: Wed Oct 11 2000 - 00:14:14 MDT

('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is) >Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 22:28:15 -0700
>From: "Michael M. Butler" <butler@comp-lib.org>
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: Eddie Eagle .eq. Joe Camel and other myths, was Re: GUNS: Why here?
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>
>Joe Dees wrote:
>>
>> I quote from:
>> http://www.handguncontrol.org/facts/ib/assault.asp
>> Handgun Control works to enact sensible gun control legislation in the United State but does not seek to ban guns.
>
>Riiiiight. You believe what they say on their web site, why don't you
>believe everything you read everywhere? Or do you?
>
If you don't like them, try Andrew McKelvey's "Americans for Gun Safety", profiled in the October 9 issue of Newsweek, p. 40, and embraced by GOP Sen. John McCain, who is campaigning in favor of voter referendums in Colorado and Oregon designed to close the gun show background check loopholes in those states. They explicitly acknowledge the right to own guns, but insist that with such rights come commensurate responsibilities. To Date, Stop Handgun Violence in Massachusetts and 27 other grass-roots groups have signed on with them.
>
>> Eddie Eagle's message tends to glamorize gun ownership as a badge of adulthood and coolness, with a cartoon character to hook the message, much as Joe Camel did for tobacco.
>
>*Utter* ballocks, and it sounds as if you're parroting a party line.
>Have you actually studied the materials? I have, and I've taught with
>them, even though I am not and have never been a member of the NRA. It's
>straightforward. Eddie Eagle says "I care too much about you to see you
>get hurt," and "Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult." to
>the youngest kids. Older kids get a more sophisticated set of messages,
>but they no more glamorize guns than does the Boy Scouts of America.
>
Didn't 13 tear old school shooter Andrew Golden receive such training?
>
>> Kids should know not to touch guns, and to tell a responsible adult about guns they find, but a child safety program cannot substitute for adult responsibility, only supplement it, and I have concerns about a propagandized 'NRA Youth".
>
>Indeed. Have your concerns. By all means, keep the NRA honest about what
>the program will and won't do; but kindly can the Joe Camel crap. Me, I
>have concerns about a propagandizing establishment that is the
>overwhelming source of glamorizing gun *use*, not ownership, as a badge
>of coolness and adulthood and whatnot. Such as a greaaaat many Hollywood
>blockbusters.
>
>Such things are what adult responsibility *and* programs like Eddie
>Eagle have to work *against*.
>
True enough; both the program and the movie industry deserve parents' watchful and discening attention before their products are offered to their kids.
>
>> >There are some little kids that were effectively killed recently by the
>> >State of California's child safety law - when the naked guy with the
>> >pitchfork broke in, the oldest child could not unlock Daddy's gun to
>> >attempt to defend her siblings. I hold the lawmakers responsible for this
>> >kind of incident.
>> >
><snip>
>> >Stupid, well-meaning laws.
>> >
>> They'll most likely save a lot more lives than they lose; if people are gonna sue either way, there will be many more suits for many more deaths without such laws.
>
>I notice your total lack of compassionate response to the cited case.
>Were the deaths in question _right_? Was Kitty Genovese's death any more
>terrible?
>
>I think not.
>
No, ANY such death is terrible, and more deaths are more terrible. If I lacked compassion for children, I would not care whether guns were kept locked and/orout of their reach or not.
>

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