----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Land" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 9:03 PM Subject: Re: An armed society ...
> On Dec 5, 2005, at 6:05 PM, Robert Seeberger wrote: > > (With tongue firmly in cheek, one hopes) <G> > >> Lest we forget that swords can cut with two >> edges........................... >> >> The greatest effect firearms have had upon history is to remove the >> advantage the large and powerful have always had over the small and >> weak. >> >> But if you really fear firearms and have no faith in your fellow >> humans, you should rid your kitchen of large cutting >> blades........just in case you piss off someone in your family and >> happen to go to sleep at an inopportune moment.<G> > > I know you're making a little joke, but the equivalence of knives > and guns as weapons just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Even your > own "guns as equalizer" argument goes against it: the small and > weak have always had access to large cutting blades, but the strong > and powerful can use 'em better. Hence guns as equalizers. One size fits all.<G> > > Guns are qualitatively different than knives (cleavers, swords, > spears, pikes and the rest). With a gun, "you just point and click", > as a character said in a play. Guns are a remote control for someone > else's life. Nahhhhh.......Guns are a remote control for punching holes in soft squishy stuff mostly. But holes are not automatically lethal and not all are. Ask all those deer hunters who come home with squat......every year. >Knives are proximity weapons, and even more than guns require >considerable skill and strength to be deadly. Ever heard of a >drive-by knifing? Or someone hiding in the bushes outside a >schoolyard with a knife and killing a dozen kids? Remember when John >Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo knifed 10 people in Virginia? Me >neither. Knifing someone is such a grisly business that not too many >people have the stomach for it. Pretty much just the odd NFL star... > No one is denying that *weapons* are dangerous. > Dave > > PS: When cars are outlawed, only outlaws will have cars. > > They are licensed, registered and highly regulated. When will the > American Automobile Association finally get off its lazy ass and > follow the lead of the National Rifle Association in lobbying to > prevent unnecessary government intrusion into our freedom! > > They can have my Honda when they pry my cold, dead fingers from > around the stickshift! LOL! You know, this is similar to the discussion Dan and I had about looking at both sides or even all sides of a story. It is quite likely that there are 500 handguns within 1/4 mile of me right now. (Consider that I live a couple of hundred yards from NASA-JSC's front gate) It is not a big deal. The last person I know of who was murdered in this radius was a philandering Dentist who was killed by his wife's Mercedes. Sure, there are people murdered with guns here, but nowhere near as many as are killed by cars, and cars *are* heavily regulated. In Houston you are in almost as much danger of being shot by law enforcement as by some criminal. (That is a stab at our local police!) Unlike some of my gun toting friends, I don't have a problem with reasonable restrictions on gun ownership and a forensic database tied to new gun sales. There are tens of thousands of laws respecting firearms. Perhaps if these laws were actually *enforced*, it would preclude the need for newer more restrictive laws. Living here in the middle of "gun country", and thoroughly immersed in gun culture, I am probably safer than someone living where gun law is much more restrictive. xponent Doesn't Own Even One And Never Has Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
