From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Fri Dec 28 2001 - 14:05:41 MST
On 12/28/01 12:48 PM, "Kai Becker" <kmb@kai-m-becker.de> wrote:
>
> Once again: I am terrible afraid when I know that people around have
> weapons. I am more afraid of any "law abiding citizen" who carries a gun,
> than I am otherwise afraid of falling victim to a violent crime. (Running
> amok woth a gun is a violent crime...)
This is not supported by the statistics, and is therefore irrational. In
most places with concealed carry, police officers are statistically more
likely to commit felonies than people that have concealed carry permits.
> My feeling is that everyone who thinks he must carry a gun is so fearful
> and so near to the brink of paranoia that he is a high risk of eventually
> going nuts.
Your feeling is irrelevant. The statistics indicate that in practice people
who legally carry firearms are among the least likely to commit violent
crimes, and by a substantial margin. Since weapons have been widely
available in the US for centuries, natural selection has weeded out most of
the weapon toting people with control issues. Consider, for example, the
regions of the US where lots of people carry pistols and nobody gives it a
second thought (e.g. some of the rural western States, where guns are
carried for utilitarian purposes). Guns are everywhere, but there is no
blood in the streets. In fact, the streets are quite safe. People with
self-control issues were removed from the gene pool a century ago in those
parts. They've ended up with a well-armed but safe and friendly environment
instead.
It would seem to follow then, that you couldn't just reintroduce pistols to
cities and regions that haven't had them for a few generations without
expecting some initial bloodshed. In all likelihood those areas have had a
buildup of sociopaths and people with questionable self-control, so the
initial conditions for reintroducing personal weaponry would not be at
equilibrium.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:12:54 MST