Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utcsstat.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!ian From: ian@utcsstat.UUCP (Ian F. Darwin, Toronto, Canada ) Newsgroups: net.followup Subject: Re: Handguns as a deterrent to crime Message-ID: <1054@utcsstat.UUCP> Date: Mon, 12-Sep-83 17:07:41 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1054 Posted: Mon Sep 12 17:07:41 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 12-Sep-83 17:29:11 EDT References: <371@dciem.UUCP> Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada Lines: 21 ===================== ... 1981 FBI statisticss show that citizens justifiably kill 30% more criminals than do police. ===================== Huh!!? Run that one by again, would you? What's the status of the death penalty without trial in the USA these days? Martin Taylor Robert Heinlein once said something to the effect that the one crime universally punishable by capital punishment is stupidity, and that the punishment is inflicted automatically, by the universe at large, and without malice. If you get shot while trying to kill someone, that is regarded by civilised society as justifiable homicide. This is a legal defense against a charge of murder. There are a lot more non-police than police, so it is not surprising that there are many non-police shootings of criminals- in-the-act by non-police. This of course only holds in areas where the state has not abrogated unto itself a monopoly on the use of force.