Do handguns serve a purpose other than killing people? Message Board

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Pastimes : Do handguns serve a purpose other than killing people?

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To: GForsyth who wrote ()	9/24/1999 2:23:00 PM
From: bluesalmon	Read Replies (2) of 289

Guns are an emotional issue. But to discuss whether guns should or should not be legal you HAVE to separate your emotions from reality. If there were no guns there would be no gun deaths, true enough. But the reality is that some people are always going to have guns. You simply can not get rid of them all. Prohibition tried to make alcohol illegal and instead of making things better only helped to increase organized crime and made ordinary people into criminals (those that simply wanted to have a drink now and again). And if guns are illegal then those people that continue owning guns will be criminals and law breakers. For the best example of this look to Washington DC where guns are illegal yet they have tremendous problems with shootings and crime. This isn't the ranting of an NRA "nut" or even a gun owner. It's simple facts and logic. America would be better off prosecuting and punishing criminals who use guns to commit crimes. There are plenty of laws designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and to punish them. But for some reason the Justice department won't follow through on them as they are too busy suing Microsoft and big tobacco companies and letting known terrorists out of jail. This is also not a rant, it's all facts. But when known criminals are set free or worse, not prosecuted for abusing gun laws, what message does that send? It tells people that if they want to abuse guns to go ahead, there won't be any special consequences to those actions. Bottom line: if you want gun crimes to go down you have to crack down on EVERY gun violation, no matter how small. If you commit a crime using a gun you go to prison for an extra long time. If you try to get a gun illegally (you are a former felon, are underage, etc.) you do prison time. This is the same theory that has helped New York reduce it's crime rate. Small offenses lead to larger offenses therefor you have to crack down on parking violations, grafitti, and other misdemeanors before they leads to murder and rape. If you want to make this a better country don't blame guns. It's easy to let your emotions get the better of you but you have to look at the problem rationally. Insist that police and the Justice department do their jobs and punish those that break the law.

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