From: Scott Badger (wbadger@psyberlink.net)
Date: Fri Jul 10 1998 - 07:00:15 MDT
Gerhard Kessell-Haak <gerhard_kessell-haak@mail.tait.co.nz> wrote:
>etc. etc.
>
>Correct me if I'm wrong; it appears that you're advocating a society
>where everybody is armed to allow individuals to protect themselves
>against other 'dysfunctional' members of the society. IMHO this is only
>addressing a secondary problem (ie. a recognized problem which is
>actually caused by a primary, unidentified problem).
>
>The primary problem is that the number of 'dysfunctional' members
>seems to be increasing. Arming everybody is simply masking the
>primary problem. The number of murders and other violent acts might
>decrease, but the number of people capable of the act remains the
>same. This is not something which can be solved by purely
>technological means (whether gun, or ray-taser - raser?) - there is no
>single magic bullet solution (sorry, couldn't help myself).
>
>Creating a society whose principles revolve around rationality, critical
>thought and individual responsibility is definitely part of the answer.
>
>
This is one of the more insightful comments made to date on this issue, IMO.
Trying to solve the crime problem by arming everyone is treating the
symptom. A more transcendent approach, it seems to me, would be to do
everything we can to eliminate Antisocial Personality Disorders (APDs) and
help would-be criminals to become higher level humans. Get rid of this
single personality disorder and you will have solved a huge part of the
problem. Yes there will still be people with impulse control disorders that
commit violent crimes (this will also hopefully be very treatable in the
future), but the chronic and pervasive character of the APD is the driving
force behind a large percentage of crimes of all sorts. The Truth Machine
was a good read but it seemed to make the same mistake of not addressing the
underlying problem of mental disorder. Being forced to tell the truth
doesn't make the APD go away. It's going to take biomedical advances or
genetic screening or something else to eventually address this more
fundmental problem. Stamping out the problem means employing what's called
a primary (preventative) intervention rather than a tertiary one (e.g. gun
proliferation). You can arm the citizenry if you want, but the APD will
find a way to express itself. I want society to be polite, not because it's
armed and scared to be anything but polite, but because it really feels like
being polite.
I can already hear the pro-gun responses:
"Yeah, but until they figure out how to stamp our APDs . . . arm everyone!"
I know it doesn't address short-term issues and I'm not against owning a
gun, and if it does come down to you or him . . . let it be you. I just
don't think that more guns is going to make the problem go away.
Scott Badger
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