On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 15:06, Ron Johnson wrote: > On Fri, 2003-11-14 at 15:41, ScruLoose wrote: > > On Fri, Nov 14, 2003 at 02:09:27PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote: > > > On Fri, 2003-11-14 at 12:41, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > On Fri, Nov 14, 2003 at 01:35:20PM -0500, Alfredo Valles wrote: > > > > > I don't think they will do so well with the number of guns you have > > > > > in the streets, bullets don't distinguish Ph degrees. > > > > > > > > PhDs and brains don't go hand-in-hand; part of being smart is knowing > > > > how to work within whatever cultural limitations you must; in the > > > > case of firearm-owning Americans, you just need to be smart enough > > > > not to not get on their bad side. Social engineering at its most > > > > useful. > > > > > > There are roughly 40M handguns in this country, and quite a number > > > of states have "right to carry concealed handgun" laws. If the > > > vast majority of people had such a low level of self-control, we > > > should see, for example, multiple Columbines[1] on a daily basis. > > > Since we don't, what conclusion can we draw from this? > > > > Well, when you look at the US figures on "firearm-related fatalities" > > being up in the tens of thousands per year... > > compared to (for example) Canada with a couple of hundred per year (and > > tight gun control laws, what a bizarre coincidence)... > > http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/994015/posts > > > > I realize that Canada has about one-tenth the population of USA, but > > that still gives you per-capita rates that say Americans are somewhere > > on the order of ten _times_ as likely to blow each other away. > > > > Does it take "multiple Columbines on a daily basis" to constitute a > > problem? > > Somewhere close to a hundred Americans blow each other away _per_day_ > > and you want this to lead me to the conclusion that things are okay? > > And... > - most are done with hot weapons > - most are "criminal-on-criminal" > > I'd rather not live in a nanny state, and take my chance, however > minimal they are, in a slightly more anarchic society.
That's kinda a risky argument to rely on, since if accepted it inevitably leads to the question - why does the US have ten times as many homicidal criminals per capita, than other countries? Answers in the back of an envelope please, addressed to the Director-General, FBI, Washington (I guess he'd dearly like to know...) <vbeg> cr -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
