From: Dana Hedberg (dah@signalinteractive.com)
Date: Tue Mar 14 2000 - 15:22:38 MST
Zero Powers wrote:
[snip my observation about average person pathology]
> No question. I *absolutely* agree with you. I just figured it would be a
> lot easier to take the gun out of the psychopath's hand than it would be to
> take the pathology out of his head. If you think there's a practical way to
> legislate against pathology, count me in, I'm all for it.
>
> -Zero
>
Well, clearly the problem of removing guns from a "psychopath's hand" is
amazingly difficult to do, as evidenced by the recent threads on this
list. I would venture that it remains to be seen whether or not it is
*more* difficult than addressing the underlying causes that precede gun
violence against humans.
My premise is that guns are just another tool that can be used by
someone who wishes to do harm or threaten harm to another. Much like a
sword, a baseball bat, a crowbar, or fisticuffs, a gun just happens to
be the weapon/tool of choice. I think there are two major events that
involve gun usage that has the people who are anti-gun (I use this term
loosely) so passionate about restrictions, banning, safety, etc. First,
is the use of a gun by a criminal to perform or threaten an injurious
act against another. The second is when a person who is naive (usually a
child) gets a hold of a gun and uses it on another.
The reasons behind the second case occurring seem to involve a lack of
education or incapable mental hardware that can not understand the
consequences of these actions. These are the cases where it seems likely
that safety mechanisms should be targeted. Education can only go so far
within the mind sets of these individuals.
The first case is much harder to deal with. We can separate these events
into a few, related, but different categories. A] Assassination B]
Criminal intent (i.e., mugging or robbery) C] Killing spree. These are
by no means exhaustive, but I believe capture the majority of gun
deaths/injuries (at least in the US). So, now the question becomes what
are the person's reasons for doing the above acts and how can we work to
eliminate or "fix" it such that this will not occur?
-Dana
-- ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* First freedom from, then freedom to.
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