Re: GUNS: Fear of Guns Vs. Fear of No Guns

mark@unicorn.com
Mon, 7 Jun 1999 03:50:10 -0700 (PDT)

QueeneMUSE@aol.com wrote:
>"The Biggest Rational
>Fear" from *citizens* is if Mr. Gun Owner starts a lucrative business of
>RESALE of guns (to criminals).

Of course, if citizens don't sell guns to criminals, the cops will happily take up that 'lucrative business'. A BATF survey of crimes committed with guns in DC a few years ago showed that around 40% of the guns had been stolen from police evidence rooms.

>They aren't as afraid of zealous Mr. Gun Owner himself, for he is "one of
>us"...(though you foreigners are right to fear him - remember the dead
>Japanese tourist who broke down on the highway and walked up to a home to
>call for help, Oops!! -- he thought "Freeze" meant "please" ?)

You will, of course, cite a reference to this incident? No, you won't, will you, because it never happened. If you're referring to the Japanese student killed in Texas, the gun owner was taken to court and the jury decided it was a justified killing. You'd have thought that if gun owners were as irrational and trigger-happy as you make out, a jury would have decided otherwise, wouldn't you?

>MOSTLY
>what one SHOULD fear is the thousands of accidental shootings Mr. Gun Owner's
>kids incur

That's what you get when you try to keep guns away from kids and don't teach them firearms safety; numerous studies have shown that kids who grow up around guns and shoot them with their relatives are the least likely to be involved in a shooting accident. If this really concerns you, why aren't you pushing for more gun safety classes?

>But guns are clearly out of control and our country is insane. We need to do
>SOMETHING.

Ho hum, emotional rhetoric, yes, that's really going to convince people. BTW, the number of murders and the number of shooting accidents (which often include suicides classified as 'accidents' by the cops for various reasons) have been going down for years; so why is this 'clearly out of control'?

>How about: Mothers Against Gun Greedy Errant Rednecks (MUGGERS)???

Ah, call your opponent a 'redneck', and then you can laugh at them, right?

Mark