Date sent: Fri, 28 May 1999 05:52:33 -0700 (PDT) From: mark@unicorn.com To: extropians@extropy.com Subject: Re: Guns [was Re: property Rights] Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> Joe E. Dees [joedees@bellsouth.net] wrote:
> >However, the pro-gunners are
> >addicted to punishment and immune to prevention.
>
> Note to the clueless: pro-gunners say we need guns to *prevent* crimes by
> stopping criminals when they try to commit those crimes. Anti-gunners prefer
> to punish the criminals *after* the crime is committed, if they get caught;
> if the victim was killed, raped, etc, well, tough luck.
>
reasonable people wanna keep 'em outta the hands of those
statistically most likely to misuse them (violent criminals, the
mentally deficient and/or deranged, spouse and/or child abusers,
children). This is a proactive rather than reactive stance. Your
armed guard certainly didn't work as NRA advertized in Littleton.
Cold hard fact. Deal with it.
>
> >They would
> >rather have Harris and Klebold shoot up a school full of kids, and
> >then punish them,
>
> No, we'd rather prevent such shootings by having people with guns there to
> shoot anyone who tries it. As has happened on at least one occasion in
> America and several occasions in Israel, but the anti-gunners don't like
> to mention that.
>
And your armed guard didn't work in Littleton, but you don't like to
mention that. Ya wanna keep a hundred in every school? Who're
they supposed to hire? Unemployed NRA members (shudder!)?
And who'll pay? The taxpayer again?
>
> >than to adopt reasonable and rational measures
> >designed to prevent the guns from getting into their hands
>
> Joe, these kids had bombs. Big fucking bombs. Bombs reportedly big enough
> to blow up half the school if they'd been set off. Had they had no guns,
> then they would have set those bombs off, and far more kids would have
> died.
>
They couldn't get them to go off. Technical difficulties, I understand.
>
> Bombs, incidentally, have been illegal for quite a while, as far as I'm
> aware. So much for laws, eh?
>
It takes no technique to pull a trigger (though some to aim
properly), but a good amount to obtain the necessary materials and
to properly construct and detonate a bomb. I'd just as soon make
them do it the hard way and have many more of them fail,
thankyouverymuch! At least make it as hard for them to get the
guns as it is to get the bombmaking materials; guns are relatively
hard to make, so if they can't get readymade ones, they're stuck.
>
> Mark
>