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From: preece@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Re: RE: Handguns for Criminals ONLY! - (nf)
Message-ID: <2998@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Sep-83 23:15:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2998
Posted: Mon Sep 26 23:15:48 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Sep-83 00:37:18 EDT
Lines: 36

#R:tekid:-155500:uicsl:5400029:000:1686
uicsl!preece    Sep 26 08:00:00 1983

	While my toaster oven may not be worth shooting someone for, STEALING
	my toaster oven may very well be an ACTIVITY worth shooting someone
	for. (For those who insist on latching up on trivia, I have never
	owned one anyway.)
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Even if you support capital punishment, the theft of a toaster oven seems
to be insufficient cause. I'd like to think we had gained in humanity and
understanding since the Middle Ages.
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				Try as I can, I am unable to understand how
	anyone can be so obsessed with the Precious Humanity of a criminal
	who has broken into someone's home to rob them.
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Try remembering that criminals are people, too. They may be inadequately
socialized, they may have been twisted by their upbringing, they may just
be genetically predisposed, but they're still people. They have families
who love and depend on them. They have pets they love. In their spare time
they may write Pulitzer-grade poetry or paint landscapes. In other words,
despite this one aspect of their lives, they are otherwise similar in
every way to any statistically random sample of the population. Don't
think about that damned toaster-oven thief bleeding to death on your
living room carpet, think of him as the father of a five-year old who
goes to school with your kids.

You have a right to defend your property and a stronger right to defend
yourself, but your rights are limited to minimal force because society
recognizes the other person's right to life and the acknowledges the
age-old observation that every person's death diminishes us all
(apologies to Donne, who could hardly have anticipated gender-free
language).

scott preece
pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece