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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (211633)	12/14/2012 9:49:11 PM
From: Wharf Rat	1 Recommendation Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 541109

If the principal of the school had a weapon she could have defended the school.

To: JohnM who wrote (211633)	12/14/2012 10:16:54 PM
From: Sam	Respond to of 541109

The second is that the increasingly "guns are good" culture we are watching being created. Yes, I agree with that. I would like to see a public service program like the one that changed attitudes about tobacco over time. But there would be some serious headwinds to that from the gun lovers. Try showing them statistics about who gets killed or wounded with guns, and they will come back at you with anecdote after anecdote about this friend or that uncle or some guy in Texas that they read about who wouldn't be alive today if he hadn't had his gun. Anecdotes trump statistics in this discussion. Cold dead hands and all that....

To: JohnM who wrote (211633)	12/14/2012 11:31:03 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541109

Virtually all handguns are semiautomatic weapons. A lot of long guns too, though I think there's a 3-shot limit on shotguns.

To: JohnM who wrote (211633)	12/15/2012 5:01:59 PM
From: cnyndwllr	9 Recommendations Read Replies (9) \| Respond to of 541109

I don't see any way of preventing this type of crime through tougher new gun laws. What restrictions could possibly work, short of rounding up and eliminating almost every privately owned gun. That's not going to ever happen in this country and, of course, if we tried that the black market in home made guns and guns that were held back would flourish. Short of that, outlawing semi auto guns wouldn't make much of a difference. A bolt action rifle in the hands of a decent shooter could shoot just about the same number of people in just about the same amount of time. If you don't believe that, work the bolt of a rifle as fast as you can and then reflect on the fact that many shooters can work that bolt faster than you did, instinctively, every time they shoot a shot. Better enforced and more restrictive gun laws might make a slight statistical difference on the margins, but not much. It's too bad that we can't limit gun ownership to those who have the judgement, mental stability and expertise to use them properly but we don't and we won't. In the meantime all the outcry over how we need to "solve" this problem through legislation simply makes liberals look panicky, impractical and silly. Ed