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From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Missing Handgun - (nf)
Message-ID: <1125@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Sep-83 22:24:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1125
Posted: Wed Sep 28 22:24:33 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Sep-83 06:35:29 EDT
References: <2994@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 69

	The last few things I've seen from laura have a
	distinctly depressed tone to them. I hope her spirited support
	of individual rights isn't slipping into a pessimistic feeling
	of helplessness in the face of the world as it is.

How about exhaustion. I *am* getting tired...  One of the awful things that
I see happening is that people around here are unwilling to admit that
"Toronto the Good" was a place in the 50s, and isn't the same place any
more. Toronto may not be NYC, but there are an awful lot of people here
who think that rapes and murders just don't happen here. Yet a friend of
mine was raped and murdered the day she graduated from law school, and a
woman who works with my mother was raped last month, and a friend of my
father was in a Becker's (local equivalent of 7/11, except that these
days we have 7/11s as well, and you can't <usually> buy slurpies at
Becker's) where a man robbed the store armed with a shotgun, last week...
and a 16 year old Becker's cashier is in hospital now paralysed where a
bullet has compressed her spine, and another variety store owner is dead...

People are finally seeing that Toronto isn't quite the wonderful place it
was. And they are screaming for protection. But I seriously doubt that there
can be any protection. You cannot protect everyone unless you change
society drastically. Have you read Oath of Fealty (by Niven and Pournelle)?
There it was possible to protect everyone because of lots of electronic
surveillance. But do we want to let Big Brother loose on Toronto? I for
one do not.

So what do we do. Arm our cops better? get more cops? There were 2 shootings
last month or so that I remember which happened because a cop dropped his
gun where a criminal who had been unarmed was able to use them. If this is
the caliber of policeman we have, then we may only be adding to the problem.
(Note: our policemen are improving. There is a huge internal campaign to
make the policemen more competant with their weapons). Also, there are
TOO Many potential crime spots in Toronto. And the policemen are under
pressure to do other things (like arrest hookers, and homosexuals, and
even give out parking tickets) to spend a lot of time worried about armed
and unarmed robbery. 

Also, more police can lead to a police-like state. This would be a bad thing.

And crime has always existed beyond the ability of law enforcement agencies
to prevent it. So the usefulness of a state to protect individuals, something
that is not generally questioned, should come into question.

Do governments really keep one free? Or is it the free people who keep the
government in line so that it does not become a monster? If the government
does not keep us free, what USE is it? And can its useful functions be
given to other agencies? (for instance, I *KNOW* that usenet, with all
its blemishes, is faster than the Postal Service at getting mail across
the country.)

What about security. Is there such a thing, or is it merely the wish that
idealistic people have caused us to believe for so long? 

Many people seem perfectly willing to sacrifice OTHER PEOPLE'S freedoms
for their own (supposed) security. I find them more dangerous than anyone
else.

What effect would a North American discovery that "there is no security"
have? Is this part of the problem of unemployment -- the realisation that
the world is not a safe place and you too can be fired? How many things
do people do to enhance their security? What would they do if you could
convince them that there was none?

And on a personal level, am I safer now, with gun control laws then I
would be if I carried a gun? I guarantee that if I were attacked and had
a gun I would use it.

Laura creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura