differentia specifica (was: guns & purses (was Re: guns & crime)

[jf noonan]

On Fri, 20 Oct 2000, [iso-8859-1] Daniel Davies wrote:
> 
> Nope, he's right.  Oz became the penal colony after
> transportation to the plantations in Virginia stopped
> being a viable penal option some time around 1776, I
> forget the reason.

OK, so back to the claim that these prisoners in VA and GA are
responsible for the gun culture in the US.  I believe there were
a whole lot more immigrants in the last half of the 19th and
first quarter of the 20th than what, a few thousand?, 10's of
thousands? of prisoners in the 1700's.  

While many have referred to these immigrants from the 19th and
20th centuries as undesirable (as I sarcasticly mentioned
earlier), I've never heard it claimed they were Marielitos.

I don't think the folks that wrote the Decl. of Ind. and the
Const. were convicts, and I don't think the convicts were
reading Locke.  I think the claim that the libertarian streak in
US culture is due to the convicts is a bit of a stretch.

--

Joseph Noonan
Houston, TX
jfn1 at msc.com