Date sent: Thu, 27 May 1999 21:36:31 -0400 From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <mike@lorrey.com> Organization: http://lorrey.com http://artlocate.com To: extropians@extropy.com Subject: Re: Guns [was Re: property Rights] Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> Martin Pericles Anso wrote:
>
> > This may be a weak argument, but to me there seems to be little
> > extropian value in enslaving oneself to a gun. Making a gun one's first
> > defense to any threat, imagined or otherwise, is hardly developing
> > yourself as a human. Non-violence, while less spectacular and seemingly
> > slower to get results, is (in my opinion) always to be preferred to a
> > violent approach.
>
> Legal gun owners, demographically, have the lowest incidence of violent crime of
> any demographic group. We set the standard of non-violence that the rest of the
> so-called non-violent pacifistic culture can't seem to meet. You're statement
> about 'enslaving oneself to a gun' is rather pathetic, since: a) you can't
> enslave yourself to an inanimate object, b) if you could, IMHO that would be by
> choice, and is far far better than becoming forcibly enslaved to the
> government/criminal terrocrat industry.
>
He said as he kissed his pistol, and massaged it's flank with a well-
oiled cloth.
>
> A gun is a technological tool, like any other tool (i.e. a PC, a cell phone,
> nanotech, brain implants, cryonic suspension, etc) is merely a means to greater
> freedom and ability for the individual, which is exactly what extropy is all
> about.
>
The obvious difference is, of course, that guns, alone of the above
mentioned devices, supposedly extend one life by ending another.
Perhaps you don't see it, but I think that's a pretty significant
difference.
>
>Government has no interest in giving you greater freedom, only in
taking
> it away. It has no interest in giving you greater ability, as that is a threat
> to its own power. Un-extropic individuals hate us and the things we stand for.
> They will not stop at mere legal maneuvers to prevent us from acheiving our
> goals.
>
I want your ass uploaded YESTERDAY, to get you away from the
guns you would just LOVE to get a chance to use on people,
Rambo! BTW, you anthromorphize government too much. It is not
this self-aware monster you would demonize it to be, and has no
self-reflective will of its own.
>
> Longevity is another extropian value. Non-gun-owners have a higher mortality
> rate than gun owners.
>
Because they're shot down by gun owners who SHOULDN'T HAVE
THEM!
> Mike Lorrey
>
>