From brettk at unica-usa.com Wed May 5 10:14:54 1999
But this is not my argument at all. I'm not saying guns
transform people. What I was trying to say is that guns make
it easy to cause enormous damage when people are at their
worst.
Surprise, SUVs do this! Did you hear that one last week? A jerk in Chicago driving an SUV cut off a bicyclist who pounded his fist on the side of the SUV; the SUV driver let the bicyclist go ahead of him and then bumped him several times, ultimately knocking the bicyclist to the ground. Then the SUV driver backed up over the bicyclist several times, killing him.
Anyway, that sounds to me like you are saying that the difference between a mad person and a mad person facing a homicide charge is the existence of a gun. So you're saying that having a gun makes you more likely to be a murderer, especially under stupid circumstances. Well, the numbers don't bear you out. CCW holders in Texas, for instance, have a lower incidence of violent crime than the population in general. Yes that's right, people who've gone to the trouble to get a CCW permit are actually *more level headed* than the average Joe.
So now I *really* think you should spend the day believing you are carrying a gun and see how many times you feel you'd be using it. My guess is that the only thing that would change is that you'd view the world in a more rational and responsible way: you'd be careful of potential threats, and you'd take the responsibility of your weapon quite seriously. In short, I think you'd become a model citizen :)
Of *course* it happens, but not with the kind of alarming regularity that you seem to be afraid of. C'mon Breatt: do the math. 100M guns, and a handful of stupid people gives rise to the idea that we should get rid of the guns and not the handful of stupid people?
Where is the praise for the 99.99% of gunowners who aren't stupid?
On any other issue where you took the actions of same incredibly small portion of the population and applied some kind of harsh arbitrary measure against them would bring huge cries of foul. Why not here?
The question is, what should people be allowed to have?
Unfortunately, while you must think you're framing the question this way, the *real* question you are asking is: "what should law-abiding people be allowed to have?" -- and frankly, I'm not big on taking away from people anything that they use responsibly. Because next you'll be talking about dildoes or bibles or fatty foods. Since most gun crimes are already committed by illegal or illegally obtained guns, you'd just be taking guns away from law-abiding folks.
Hey, here's a crazy idea: let's find a way to solve the real problem of how criminals get guns rather than worry about how law abiding people get guns (largely they get them from Wal-Mart). I believe this is largely a question of enforcement and incarceration.
I was surprised to discover just how much more at risk I'd be
in a dangerous situation if you put a gun into my hand.
I should hope that if you decided to arm yourself with any type of weapon for use in self-defense (including non-guns like pepper spray, knives, flashlights), you'd find out how to use it legally and effectively long before you put it into your daily routine. Repeating (and paraphrasing) what someone said earlier: having a weapon doesn't give you victory, it just changes the odds.
/jordan