Re: look out! long-haired gun loon!

From: Michael Butler (mmb@best.com)
Date: Wed Dec 17 1997 - 14:12:08 MST


I'm going to keep this brief, and then I'll probably have said all I feel
like saying on this subject...

On Wed, 17 Dec 1997, Wings of the Morning wrote:

> that story is seriously sickening. It is a hard choice to make. But that's one
> life opposed to thousands man. How about the millions of jews who died in
> concentration camps in WWII? That couldn't really do much about soldiers armed
> with guns and other weaponry forcing them to move along, and to do horrible things,
> who would shoot them at an instence if they tried anything.

Bad example. The Jews were disarmed by law, before they started being
rounded up and exterminated. Kind of like my "all left handed people are
now slaves" example.

The Warsaw ghetto was defended by a handful of Jews with a pitiful
collection of arms, put up against a very large number of German troops.
They were the exception.

> Know that when somone
> carries a gun, somone one else is going to die, it's inevitable, wether
> or not the person who owns the gun is a moral person or not.

Nope, I don't know anything of the sort. There are something like 40
states with liberalized "shall-issue" laws for concealed carry permits.
There has been no bloodbath.

I do not promote guns.

I do promote individual responsibility.

I teach Eddie Eagle to people who express an interest:

"Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult."

If that kid you mentioned had been taught, instead of being ignorant, the
UN trooper would be alive today.

> But you don't look far enough to see
> that if guns didn't even exist at all there would be a lot less to
> have to protect one's self from.

As I say, I used to believe something similar. I still think that if I had
a magic wand that could instantly turn every firearm on the planet into a
puddle of atoms, I *might* wave it. But I'd think long and hard about it.

Because, as others have said, they're just not that hard to build.
People in the 1400s could do it, for heaven's sake. People with
access to nothing more than a corner hardware store can build them.

And since they're not going away, why should only bad guys have them?

Peace, and *I*'m out...

MMB



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