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

To: Grainne who wrote (24542)	8/23/1998 12:09:00 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

<< However, I disagree with you about the NRA.>> I said I agreed with the NRA stand of wanting stiffer penalties for crimes committed with guns. You want to ease the penalties for weapons related crimes just to disagree with the NRA? <<While it might seem now that you need a gun to protect yourself, that is kind of a chicken and egg argument, isn't it? If all the guns in America were somehow removed in one day, statistically everyone would be a whole lot safer.>> That ain't gonna happen. In the country there are uses for a gun other than just protection.

To: Grainne who wrote (24542)	8/24/1998 1:11:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

>The sheer number of guns in America makes the rate of gun violence greater per capita than any other country.< The implied "cause and effect" here is false. Number of guns does not correlate with crime or criminality. The Stalinists at Handgun Control, Inc. would dearly like you to believe this, because their entire ideology hinges on the verity of this precept. Since they cannot prove it, bit since it sounds plausible, they just repeat it over and over again, like Hitler did when he blamed the miserable German economy on Jews. I'm here to remind people that the Big Lie, American-style, is still a lie. >Most guns used by criminals are stolen in residential burglaries.< Most guns in America are lawfully owned by ordinary citizens! Would it sound more impressive if your random hood got his illegal gun from a police dept. or a National Guard depot? What's the ratio of "guns used in a crime" over "total citizen-owned guns"? I'll bet it's lower than "cars involved in injury accidents" over "all privately-owned cars". I submit that it's a meaningless ratio whose only purpose is to make guns somehow Look Bad. Who wins in this campaign to demonize the privately-held firearm? >If all the guns in America were somehow removed in one day, statistically everyone would be a whole lot safer.< Ah, the crux of this canted logic. 1) Removing all guns from America is arguavbly more difficult than the much fairer act of "removing all illegally-held guns". Why the emphasis on total disarmament; why not merely disarm the criminals? Again, who stands to gain by this sweeping policy? 2) America would be safer from random acts of gun violence. For a week or maybe a year. But the basic concept of our Bill of Rights is that ultimate power resides with the citizen. Removing all guns telegraphs the idea that our personal rights and privileges have been swept aside in the pursuit of the Greater Good. We would trade an evanescent personal security for a completeloss of our defense against Big Government in its irresistible slide toward the "communitarian ethic". Which I consider a thin veil for neo-Communism. Guns are not our greatest national threat. Creeping oppression is. Remember - who stands to gain by stripping the Bill of Rights?