Letters to the Editor
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Prohibition Doesn't Work
Even in a Pollyanna world, some people would still do bad things. I'm all for restricting gun ownership, but this guy could just as esaily have plowed a car into a crowd. Your proposed solution would not solve this problem.
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New Bumper Sticker Suggestions
Death to the Second!
I love my child more than you love your gun.
Pry it from your cold, dead fingers? Okay!
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Great idea
Fifteen unambiguous words are all that would be required to quell the American-as-apple-pie cycle of gun violence
I think you're on to something. Remember when we had a war on drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?
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How about we abolish the right to self-defense as well?
Some years ago my wife began to be stalked by one of her clients. We tried to get an anti-stalking order against the guy, but the judge refused because the stalker had not actually threatened to kill or injure her. We called the police, but they are basically worthless in such situations, if the fellow hasn't actually done anything illegal. (It can be notoriously difficult to get anyone in law enforcement interested in such situations.)
We knew that the fellow was potentially dangerous; some months earlier he had beaten a woman badly enough to send her to the hospital. She refused to press charges.
What did I do? Did I buy a handgun? You're goddamned right I did. I got a membership at a gun range, and read everything I could get my hands on about carrying a concealed handgun. My wife studied with Massad Ayoob, of the Lethal Force Institute.
Now I suppose many people would oppose that, because "the police have guns." Great, when you get your own personal policeman, let me know. Most people get their own personal policeman when they're on the ground in a pool of blood.
Others might say "learn martial arts." I already had. But very little in most martial arts training prepares you for surviving an attack by someone determined to kill you. Most people would be better served in that regard by learning tennis, because then at least you could whack the guy with a tennis racket. And when you face a possibly imminent threat, spending four or five years learning martial arts is not a very good idea.
A handgun is the only portable means of defense that gives you a ranged defense against one or more attackers. By that I mean that all other forms of self defense require you to to be within a few feet of the attacker. At that point it may be too late. Especially for women, a handgun is indeed "the great equalizer."
The mere possession of a handgun does not guarantee that you will successfully defend yourself. But there is NO means of self-protection that offers a guarantee. Just because you wear a seat belt doesn't mean you don't be injured in an accident. Just because you have a fire extinguisher doesn't mean you won't burn to death in a house fire.
What a handgun does give you is another option. It is an option that can only be used in the most extreme situations. But if you find yourself in one of those situations, there is no substitute.
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Missing the point: last means to ensure self-determination now "Quaint", so 18th Century?
Our Country was founded through force of arms, after extended negoiation was deemed futile. Guns were required to disabuse King George III and the Paraliament of their control over the colonies.
The 2nd Amendment was included in the Bill of Rights because the Founders believed that the bloody process of revolution might have to be repeated in the future. An armed citizenry and the threat of rebellion are the final checks against the abuse of government power. Horrible to contemplate, but true.
Given the continuing stream of articles in Salon regarding the unbridled abuse of power of those in government today it is hard to believe that human nature has changed much from the days of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. They may not have driven a Prius to work, but they understood human nature, particularly the lust for power. In addition to the right to bear arms, they also believed in Habeas Corpus, another quaint notion of the 18th Century which now seems to be optional.
I'm leery of those on both the right and left who imply that Americans have now transcended the rough clay of their forebearers and reside on some inate plateau of goodly righteousness where justice, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are merely our due, and that the pragmatic, but dim and skeptical view of humanity espoused by the founders should be discarded as quaint. I think history shows that every generation must battle anew to establish justice and fight the darker side of human nature.
Rather than blaming the NRA for all the ills of gun violence that take place in our violent society, a more pertinent topic would be: are we willing to retain the right to violently overthrow our government at some point in time, a point which hasn't come in over 200 hundred years and which may never come, when we know for sure that every year people will use those guns to commit horrific acts of violence?
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The same damn fallacies
The letter writers have drug out some of the same hoary old gun-nut fallacies. Let's put them in the dirt once and for all, please.
The "we should also ban cars and alcohol" bit. Couple things wrong here: We do register drivers of motor vehicles. And we do legislate how we buy and sell alcohol, and who can possess and consume it.
Also, cars and alcohol have legitimate purposes other than violent death. Guns are made for killing. If you want to target shoot, work on a real skill: Pick up a bow and arrow.
The "he'd a blowed up a bunch of people if he didn't have a gun" bit. No, he'd have been more likely to blow himself up, as explosives are not so handily available as handguns, and not nearly as easy to use. And as someone else here pointed out, if you think guns aren't contributing to the problem, try to finish off 32 people with a knife sometime. Guns make it easy to kill.
The "more laws won't work because it won't catch everyone" bit. By this argument, we should legalize murder, too, because we're never going to catch all the murderers. Fires burn down houses and apartments every day; let's ban the fire department!
Please, gun owners, just lighten up and regulate. If you're law-abiding, you have nothing to fear. Look at the miniscule gun-death rates in gun-control countries with an open mind, not with the NRA debunking sheet at hand.
And by the way, it's almost certainly not true that your penis will fall off if you lose your gun.