Re: look out! long haired gun loons

Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Fri, 19 Dec 1997 12:55:47 -0800 (PST)


From: Wayne Hayes <wayne@cs.toronto.edu>

>I don't think Jefferson was talking about militaries, and neither
>are the people in this thread. The "armed" in this thread clearly
>refers to average citizens. In that sense, the US citizenry is
>far more heavily armed than any other (first-world) country I'm
>aware of. Certainly there are plenty of people in Western Europe
>and Canada with guns, but the percentage is far lower than in the
>US, and the kinds of guns are generally different, too. Fully
>automatic weapons are almost non-existent in Canada (outside the
>military), and I suspect the same is true for most of Western
>Europe. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Fully automatic weapons have been illegal to the average U.S.
citizen since the 1930's.

>Hardly anybody in Canada (percentage-wise) owns a gun. I can only
>think of one person, in all the people I know personally
>(including all the not-so-close acquantences of my family), who
>owns a gun --- a pistol. I used to have many friends who had
>guns, but they were all people who were involved with the Canadian
>military. (I used to be in the the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. I
>was on the rifle team. I was the top cadet marksman in southern
>Ontario. It was fun, and some day I may buy a rifle, but it's not
>high on my priority list. So, you see, I have nothing personally
>against guns, I'm just arguing your facts here.)

It must be a case of like attitudes, almost every Canadian I know
owns a gun. ;)

>>not to mention a rather large and extremely well armed neighbor
>>to the south. If you think thats got nothing to do with it,
>>you're only kidding yourself.

>Nothing to do with "it"? What "it" are you refering to?

The "it" I was refering to is that Canada has an easier time than
most countries being "substantially unarmed" and free because it's
next door neighbor is well armed.

>So, as I said, since it is clear to me that there exist countries
>today that are substantially unarmed and also free and peaceful,
>it is unclear that Jefferson's statement will be proved correct in
>the long term.

I haven't seen any proof of this, but I'm unlikely to convince you.

Take care neighbor..... ;)

Brian