Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiuccsb!leimkuhl
From: leimkuhl@uiuccsb.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Handguns: we're succumbing to mob ru - (nf)
Message-ID: <2789@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-Sep-83 22:32:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2789
Posted: Sun Sep 11 22:32:47 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Sep-83 21:21:05 EDT
Lines: 38

#R:tekecs:-195400:uiuccsb:3200006:000:1853
uiuccsb!leimkuhl    Sep 11 17:14:00 1983


Many people seem to think that the availability of handguns is not the real
reason for the high murder rate in this country (it is high for a developed
nation); Some think that if handguns were banned, people would find other ways 
to kill each other.

The important point is that most handgun deaths in this country are the result
of domestic disputes.  Armed lunatics, muggers, and hired killers account for
few of the more than 10,000 murders occurring in the US each year. It is in
that instant when rage completely overwhelms the jealous lover that the trigger 
is more often squeezed.  It is the drunken victim of some barroom breach of 
etiquette who might through twisted logic see death as just punishment for
an insult.

The handgun is an extremely lethal weapon (yes, even a .22).  A knife is only
lethal when persons are face-to-face, and the killer is either well trained or
is completely deranged and can inflict consecutive multiple blows without the
victim escaping.  Likewise, no other easily obtainable weapon gives an attacker
the power to do so much damage for so little physical and emotional effort--the
handgun allows one to project death from the safe distance of a few feet, thus
making murder clean as well as simple.  

As a boy I remember killing a squirrel with my air rifle.  It took only a few
seconds and little effort and seemed somewhat like shooting targets at the
carnival.  It was only when I saw and felt the dead animal that I realized my
only accomplishment was the destruction of a small, pathetic creature.  I'm
certain I could not have killed that animal with my bare hands, or a knife,
or a baseball bat.

Most of us would agree that homicide in any form is a fowl act; handguns tend
to make it more palatable, and so desensitive us.  That makes us all less
human.

Ben Leimkuhler
(uiucdcs!uiuccsb!leimkuhl)