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From: simard@loral.UUCP (Ray Simard)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Gun Control again... A Position Paper
Message-ID: <326@loral.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 4-Aug-84 00:36:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: loral.326
Posted: Sat Aug  4 00:36:54 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 30-Jul-84 01:01:57 EDT
References: <859@pucc-h> <898@pyuxa.UUCP> <801@ihuxp.UUCP>, <1565@sun.uucp>, <790@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego, CA
Lines: 50

[Do not write in this space]

When I heard the details of the McDonald's massacre, especially the
depression and delusions of the killer, it seemed to me that perhaps
he was not only homicidal, but suicidal as well.  Surely he did not
expect to casually put on his performance then disappear into the mist.
With that in mind, how many other methods could he have used for his
action?  One that occurred to me was crashing a vehicle into the
restaurant.

Imagine my surprise and horror when I heard last night that someone
in Los Angeles did essentially the same thing - driving a car deliberately
into a knot of strangers.  He was quoted today as having done it "to get
even".  For what, I don't know yet.

To me, both the McDonald's occurrence and this one are the same; an
unstable individual desperate to express pain and hatred making
a terrible statement.  Only the means are really different.

Gun control would not have stopped the first occurrence, and guns played
no role in the second.

The problem with gun control is shared with the nuclear-freeze activity:
imputing the threat and significance of a threat to objects,
instead of to the minds of people.  It is an attempt to take the easy
way out - things can be controlled and regulated in ways people cannot.
Nevertheless, the problem must be addressed where it exists, not by
proxy.

In both the tragedies I have mentioned here, human minds and consciousness
created the events; objects (guns and a car) were the tools used to
perform the action.

Time may eventually reveal the origins of the rage and pain that
motiviated each of these individuals.  We already know that Huberty
was maltreated by his parents; I was highly angered by the revelation
that his mother had abandoned him to go into missionary work - what
kind of service to God required the scarring of a child like that?
Such attitudes reveal the difference between religion and spirituality.

There are, I believe, ways to address all of these things; perhaps
in other postings I'll discuss them.  For now, I can only
suggest that human issues, not hardware, should be the focus of
our concern and attention if we are to bring about the end of
events such as these.
-- 
Ray Simard
Loral Instrumentation, San Diego
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