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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (23954)	8/1/1998 11:49:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Oh please, Duncan!! All your study suggests is that once the society is entirely built on violence, and all the criminals are armed, they are somewhat more reluctant to use their guns if they believe all the citizens are armed to the teeth, as well. I personally think this is an absolutely pathetic state of affairs. If mindless gun control killed, then America would have a very, very low rate of death by gun violence compared to other countries, since we sure don't have much gun control. Instead, it has the highest per capita rate in the world. Do you want me to post statistics comparing this in all the industrialized countries? America in an international aberration, an example of social pathology. Your "study" is just one more example of the way most Americans are brainwashed by the pro-gun lobby. In fact, here is a very interesting essay about it, which appeared recently in the SF Chronicle: 2nd Amendment Argument Is Myth Juliet Leftwich Tuesday, July 28, 1998 LAST WEEKEND'S shooting at the Capitol, in which two police officers were killed and a bystander wounded, is another example of gun violence run amok in our country. This tragedy it also calls into question the campaign by the National Rifle Association and its new president, actor Charlton Heston, to discredit rational proposals to address our nation's epidemic of gun violence. The NRA has long argued that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to own virtually any type of firearm, anyplace, anytime, without governmental restriction. Unfortunately, this legal distortion has been repeated so frequently that it is now accepted by most Americans, including the media, even though it is without any legal basis whatsoever. As stated by former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, the NRA's interpretation of the Second Amendment is ''one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.'' The Second Amendment states: ''A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'' The Supreme Court addressed the meaning of this constitutional provision nearly 50 years ago in U.S. vs. Miller. In Miller, two men argued that the Second Amendment was violated by a federal law prohibiting the interstate transportation of sawed-off shotguns. The court flatly rejected the argument, holding that the ''obvious purpose'' of the Second Amendment was ''to assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness'' of the state militia, and it ''must be interpreted with that end in view.'' Since the Miller decision, federal and state courts have unanimously held that the Second Amendment only protects the right to ''bear arms'' in the context of service to a state-sponsored military force or militia (the modern equivalent of which is the National Guard). The courts have never held that the amendment precludes laws to regulate the design, manufacture, sale, possession or use of guns for private purposes. Significantly, even though most Americans believe the NRA's propaganda, they still overwhelmingly support rational legislative efforts to reduce gun violence. In California, for example, where guns (and not auto accidents or disease) are the leading killers of youth, . . . sfgate.com