Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 19:30:38 -0600 (CST) From: Jay Nelson <noslenj@swbell.net> To: Brad Knowles <blk@skynet.be> Cc: cjclark@home.com, Mark Ovens <mark@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Guns and freedom [Was: Re: On "intelligent people" and "dangers to BSD"] Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.10003271847340.786-100000@acp.swbell.net> In-Reply-To: <v04220811b505330f911e@[195.238.1.121]>
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On Mon, 27 Mar 2000, Brad Knowles wrote: [snip] > The #1 killer of police is their own weapon -- they get it taken >away from them and used against them. For obvious reasons, police >departments don't want this statistic to get out. > > This also happens to be the #1 killer of people with firearms at >home -- the intruder takes the weapon away and kills them with it. > > > If we taught people (including our police) how to properly use >their weapons, this problem would go away. > > You can forget every single other aspect of this argument -- >until you can solve the problem of people who own firearms knowing >enough about them and their proper handling to prevent them from >being taken away and used against them, you're never going to get >much progress. The problem isn't actually training people to handle the weapon -- it's training people to deal with a violent confrontation -- which happens very rarely in our world today -- but _does_ happen. The violent criminals out there didn't learn from the movies, but from experience. An unarmed individual that knows how to deal with violence has an advantage over an armed individual who doesn't. But an armed individual _will_ slow them down long enough to take the advantage if if the armed individual is capable. The anti-gun zealots seem to harp on the "accidental" shootings and the dangers to the owner. In the real world -- there is no such thing as an "accidental discharge." There is, of course, stupidity, which the zealots don't want to address because it's far more complicated than guns. And -- attacking arms feels better. Most of the reasoned discussion in this diversion of the thread seems to come from people who clearly have never faced a violent confrontation and are basing their logic on the movies. That will convince people who also learn from movies. It will never sway those who learned up close and personal -- so I think we are wasting a lot of band width and should get back to hand-wringing over the merger. We should be saving a whale or a Jordon, or something else:) -- Jay To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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