From: Mitchell, Jerry (3337) (Jerry.Mitchell@esavio.com)
Date: Tue Jul 10 2001 - 15:22:27 MDT
Mike Lorry wrote:
<snip>
I'm very much against arming civilians. I sincerely believe that it will
lead to more violence and criminality, not less. And I do not see how
this
automatically makes my otherwise rather liberal (European measurement,
not
US) opinions socialist.
<snip>
I know that its the habit of a lot of people to start quoting statistics
on
this one. Some stats are valid, others are questionable. I ultimately
think
this is something that should be defended on principle. I don't care if
the
guns do cause more crime. What I do care about is my right to self
defense.
Imagine a world with no guns, where intruders now break in your house
with
knives and sticks. How do you defend yourself at that point? More knives
and
sticks? Try and figure the odds of you winning that kind of a fight, on
average, Id say 50/50 (if there is only one of them). I have a right to
defend myself using the most powerful reasonable tools allowable (no, I
obviously don't mean nukes). When someone is in my house at night and I
am
responsible for protecting my family (not the police, or Interpol, or
whomever), you can bet Ill take maximum precautions to protect my
family.
Understand what I'm saying, I don't care about statistics... You can
twist
them any which way to Sunday and so can the other side. In principle it
is
wrong to remove the best means of self-defense from law abiding people,
because even if you could manage to get the guns out of the hands of
criminals (impossible), it wouldn't change my situation of defending my
family a whit.
Here's the possibilities once again...
You have gun, intruder has gun. Outcome 50/50
You don't have gun, intruder has gun. Outcome 5/95 your dead
You don't have gun intruder doesn't have gun. Outcome 50/50
You have gun, intruder doesn't have gun. Outcome 95/5 you
win
So if you don't have a gun, your chances are 50/50 and 5/95 your dead.
If
you do have gun your chances are 50/50 and 95/5 you win. Now you pick
your
best chance at surviving. (note: these don't count as statistics, just
basic
deduction :P )
And if anyone wants to take this over to exi-freedom, Ill agree. That's
where this discussion belongs as has been stated in the past so many
times.
Jerry Mitchell
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