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:
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