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

To: Abner Hosmer who wrote (216)	4/24/1999 2:03:00 PM
From: WTSherman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 368

<Haven't you seen the pictures of European and Russian Jews being dragged out of their homes and murdered in the streets in "nice" European cities.< Superficially, this would seem like a good argument. Unfortunately, it also isn't very accurate. The idea that German Jews would have had a different fate if they had owned guns is absurd. When the power of a state and the military of that state is turned against its people it will have the result the world witnessed in the holocaust. Do you really think that the Jews of the USSR would have had a different fate at Hitler's hands if they had owned more rifles? The whole Russian nation, armed to the teeth was nearly defeated and the army, alone, suffered nearly 10 million deaths. If having small arms could prevent state sponsored atrocities then then what is happening in Kosovo right now wouldn't be happening. The KLA has 50,000 members all of whom are armed with fairly advanced automatic weapons. They are helpless against an organized military with tanks, armored cars, artillery, etc. If having one's own arms could prevent gov'ts from this type of thing Scotland would be an independent nation today, instead of being part of the U.K. Its people all had weapons, lots of them. But, the power of an organized military was overwhelming. The logic just doesn't stand up to reality. Instead, it fits the same pattern of paranoid, insecure and powerless thinking that motivates almost all gun ownership. Having a gun makes people who feel this way feel a little better. It doesn't change the realities very much.