From cjs10 at cornell.edu Fri Oct 27 15:57:40 2000
When I owned a shotgun in the hills of NY State, I needed
the thing to kill rabid varmints with.
Who cares why you "needed" it?
What's it got to do with "need" ...?
my big wuss of a dog had a loud bark, and I figure the best
weapons are the ones that can't be turned against you.)
Where you pick up mythology is where it should stay; less than 1% of citizens who use a gun in self-defense have it turned against them (it's in fact the only "good" alternative: all other weapons get you in bigger trouble than if you just submit -- guns actually increase your chances of coming out better than if you submit).
Unless you're a cop, you're unlikely to have your gun used against you. As I recall, the number is about 14% of cops who are shot are shot with their own gun (even that's not terribly high, but it's WAY higher than the rate for citizens). One study believes that this is because a) criminals _expect_ cops to be armed as opposed to being _unpleasantly surprised_ when an intended victim is and b) cops utilize "open carry" in easily accessed holsters. Guns with holster straps that keep a gun from straying too far from the user's holster seem to help here a lot.
Yes ma'am, and I think if I were a cop in Amurka I might
be plagued with a similar suspicion, might be just as
rattleable.
C'mon, there's more gun owners in the US than there are VOTERS!
All of them can't be a threat to the cops. In fact, legal gun owners are more law abiding than your average citizen.
Am I being simple-minded? Look at it this way: the whole
fucking place is a war zone.
Heh. I think you answered your own question.
Letting Joe Blow have an arsenal in his basement unbeknownst
to the rest of us is not going to make the world a better
place.
And neither is taking it away from him.
/jordan