Re: Fear of Guns Vs. Fear of No Guns

James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Sun, 06 Jun 1999 23:14:44 -0700

At 10:50 PM 6/6/99 EDT, you wrote:
>
>In a message dated 6/6/99 4:50:56 PM, you wrote:
>
>>
>>*Nothing* is safe as long as ignorance and carelessness abound; fix these
>>and you've solved the problem.
>
>fix kids?

Educate kids, educate parents.

A not-so-funny conversation I overheard in a Los Angeles gun store about two weeks ago:



CUSTOMER: I want to buy a high capacity .380 pistol for home defense.

STORE CLERK: They don't make high capacity .380s. How about a high capacity 9mm? It is pretty similar.

CUSTOMER: No, I want a .380 because I have a 4-year old daughter.

STORE CLERK: What does that have to do with buying a .380 versus a 9mm?

CUSTOMER: I heard the .380 is less lethal, so if my daughter accidentally shoots herself, she might only be injured instead of killed.

STORE CLERK (dumbfounded): A gun should never be in a place where your daughter will play with it. I am sorry, but if you can't keep your guns out of the hands of your kids, then I cannot in good conscience sell you a gun.


The extreme abdication of this father's responsibility for the welfare of his daughter is simply stunning. It is half-cocked idiots like the customer above that give guns a bad name. And it wasn't that this guy was malevolent; he was just clueless to a degree I never thought possible. I have no problem with having Proof of Competence being a prerequisite to buying a gun, because it is fairly obvious from the above example that some people need it.

-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com