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Pastimes : WHY?? Littleton Colorado -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert B. who wrote (102)	4/22/1999 5:50:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 368

>Give me you best explanation why you don't advocate this. Obviously, arming kids at school will never happen. But please put your reasons into words.< Okay. Here goes. In the USA we have a piece of the Bill of RTights that I think guarantees the citizen's right to own firearms. I don't want to see that undone. In order to not see it undone, I think it is wise for everyone to understand that guns are useful for causing immediate grievous injury. Thus who gets to carry them daily should be subject to regulation. One real basic good idea imho is that the age of 21 be used as a lower cut-off. This means that schools should be "safe havens" from firearms even if there is general permission to carry guns. Arming the teachers or introducing armed security personnel into schools has been proposed. I find this distasteful because it shifts the final burden of security onto folks who should be accessible and trustworthy to all the kids. Owning guns and using them places a basic and stringent responsibility on the owner of record. I am responsible for the things done with my gun, unless it was stolen. Thus if my son takes my Winchester to school, the question comes back to me as to how he even had the chance to sneak it out of the house. I lock my guns up. I trust my daughter, but one day she'll bring home friends. Do I trust them? With a Chevy, yes. With a Winchester, I don't think so. I think the parents of the Littleton murderers - if the guns were theirs - have some answering to do to the community. Just my $.02 I am a big fan of the central concept of personal individual responsibility. This goes hand in hand with my soft spot for civil liberties. If I won't stake my responsibility, I do not earn liberty. Perhaps this is a peculiarly USA mindset, but I possess it. So in this spirit I am a bit put off by the prevalence of the question "where did the community go wrong?" This is okay if it is shorthand for "what individuals dropped the ball here?" But I fear that folks are looking for systemic flaws that are amenable to systemic patches. I despair of this. Our community's health is a direct reflection of the composite health of the individuals and families that make it up. It is my contention that any meaningful strategy here focuses on the motives and behaviors of each individual. Nihilism is really In with the high school age set now, and it sure seems suggestive of a loosening of the traditional strictures of behavior accepted within many kids' families or peer groups. When I was growing up, nihilism was accepted as posturing, not serious. Now it's serious, and how to reverse this is a real tough nut. I ramble. Where was I? Oh yeah. Gun ownership is not a casual thing. Two good friends of mine owned guns and have gotten rid of them because they had personal reasons to feel less safe with the guns around. I tremendously respect these individuals for sober self assessment and taking appropriate action. Gun ownership isn't for everybody. That's why we don't have a Swiss system actually requiring gun ownership! I have the right to NOT keep&bear arms, and I cherish that right as much as the one TO keep&bear arms. Thus I like to see "balance" and "good sense" applied to the ownership and use of guns. Felony convicts, most mental patients and juniors are restricted from buying and possessing firearms, and I think that is all well and good. If we find a way to enforce the laws concerning this - we will have taken a big step to ward limiting violence - the real enemy here - without running roughshod over rights codified in the most central of our legal documents.