Date sent: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 00:11:18 -0700 From: "Mark D. Fulwiler" <mfulwiler@earthlink.net> To: extropians-digest <extropians@maxwell.kumo.com> Subject: Guns Send reply to: extropians@extropy.com
> The issue of guns is something I think ought to concern extropians
> because of the possibility that gun ownership may help us increase our
> life spans. The question of whether or not gun control does or does not
> reduce homicides is a question of fact , not ideology.
>
Gun discharge can certainly cut them short - also a fact.
>
> Your personal
> feelings towards guns are irrelevant to the factual question. I think an
> analysis of the facts shows the anti-gun people to have, by far, the
> weaker case.
>
It is not a stark and bipolar choice between an absolute ban and
the absence of all restrictions. This is an illicit and absolutistic
straw-man argument which possesses not even a passing
acquaintance with the rational, reasonable, targeted and limited
proposals under discussion.
>
>Professor John Lott's book is a good starting point for
> those unfamiliar with the issue. Mr. Lott does not engage in name
> calling, responds calmly to criticism , and presents an excellent
> overall case for private handgun ownership. Why is it that so many other
> people can't discuss this issue without going off the handle?
>
Not only am I responsible for the insults I issued, but they were in
response to the epithets slung by the progun-for-all-including-kids-
violent-criminals-and-the-clinically-insane fanatic zealots.