From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Mon Jun 07 1999 - 00:14:44 MDT
At 10:50 PM 6/6/99 EDT, you wrote:
>
>In a message dated 6/6/99 4:50:56 PM, you wrote:
>
>>
>>*Nothing* is safe as long as ignorance and carelessness abound; fix these
>>and you've solved the problem.
>
>fix kids?
Educate kids, educate parents.
A not-so-funny conversation I overheard in a Los Angeles gun store about
two weeks ago:
-------------------------
CUSTOMER: I want to buy a high capacity .380 pistol for home defense.
STORE CLERK: They don't make high capacity .380s. How about a high
capacity 9mm? It is pretty similar.
CUSTOMER: No, I want a .380 because I have a 4-year old daughter.
STORE CLERK: What does that have to do with buying a .380 versus a 9mm?
CUSTOMER: I heard the .380 is less lethal, so if my daughter accidentally
shoots herself, she might only be injured instead of killed.
STORE CLERK (dumbfounded): A gun should never be in a place where your
daughter will play with it. I am sorry, but if you can't keep your guns
out of the hands of your kids, then I cannot in good conscience sell you a
gun.
-----------------------------
The extreme abdication of this father's responsibility for the welfare of
his daughter is simply stunning. It is half-cocked idiots like the
customer above that give guns a bad name. And it wasn't that this guy was
malevolent; he was just clueless to a degree I never thought possible. I
have no problem with having Proof of Competence being a prerequisite to
buying a gun, because it is fairly obvious from the above example that some
people need it.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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