Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site teldata.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!drutx!houxe!hogpc!houti!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!teltone!teldata!tac From: tac@teldata.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Guns as a tool. Message-ID: <458@teldata.UUCP> Date: Fri, 27-Jul-84 11:36:10 EDT Article-I.D.: teldata.458 Posted: Fri Jul 27 11:36:10 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 29-Jul-84 00:57:24 EDT References: <859@pucc-h.UUCP>, <34900023@convex.UUCP> <509@umn-cs.UUCP> Organization: Teltone Corp., Kirkland, WA Lines: 77 , (sop to the blank line eaters--consider it a religious sacrifice) Jeff Woolsey writes: >> Doug Hosking writes: >> >> Although it's hard to accept it sometimes, a gun is nothing more or >> less than a tool. Like any other tool, it can be abused. Baseball >> bats can and have been used to kill people, but nobody's suggested >> imprisoning the local Little League team for possession of dangerous >> weapons. In many ways, a chainsaw can be more deadly than a pistol, >> yet you don't need a license to buy or use one. Electricity kills >> many people a year, yet we spend billions on new power plants. >> >> Baseball bats are for hitting baseballs. >> Chainsaws are for turning forests into lumber. >> Electricity is for light, heat, communications, industry, .... >> Guns are for poking holes in mammals. >> >> Which one doesn't belong? >> OK, next time you are faced with a charging polar bear use electricity. Admittedly, most of us will never have the opportunity to try this with you, but a law must apply equally to all or else it is not a good law. Now go tell the people who do live in Alaska (or anywhere that wild animals still live) that you are going to make them fight the wilderness with a 30 ton electric generator. Now go tell the environmentalists that it is OK to turn all of the trees into lumber. And what have you got against innocent baseballs anyway? The gun, as a weapon, is still only a tool. It won't kill anyone without help. It is no more, nor less, dangerous than the person holding it. (I once heard a "congressional joke"-- Q. What is red and dangerous? A. An apple with a GUN.-- and there is some evidence of a medieval version which substitutes crossbow for gun.) There would be no accidental shootings by children if they were trained that: 1. Guns can be dangerous. 2. Always handle them with care. 3. Never point a gun at anyone--including yourself. 4. Always make sure a gun is unloaded when handling it. If people (note the who- the gun didn't load itself) didn't leave them lying around loaded, there would be a lot less usage of guns in crimes of passion. As far as crime experience, my Grandfather was robbed at gunpoint, my brother-in-law threatened with a butcher knife, a lady I know raped at knifepoint and the guy who attacked me used a car. The total is that cars are used as often as guns, and knifes twice as often. Admittedly too small a sample to be statistically significant, but I would really like to know just how many people are attacked with guns versus knives. For all of you gun registration people: When Germany marched into Poland in 1939 they grabbed the police gun registration lists and began confiscating all of the guns. Polish resistance was then crippled until more guns could be smuggled in. Now I don't expect the US to be invaded from the outside, just a gestapo state to be formed sometime in the next 30 years. I don't want them knowing where all of the weapons of rebellion are. One of the things that separates the US from the many other "Democracies" throughout the world which keep having military coups is the fact that the general populace is armed. >From the Free Wheeling, Fast Dealing Soapbox of Tom Condon {...!uw-beaver!teltone!teldata!tac} A Radical A Day Keeps The Government At Bay. DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed herein are those of everyone who matters, but not necessarily anyone you know, and most certainly not my employers!