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Path: utzoo!utcsstat!laura
From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: More on Handguns
Message-ID: <1339@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Oct-83 07:37:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1339
Posted: Thu Oct 27 07:37:10 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Oct-83 07:44:32 EDT
References: <408@ihuxb.UUCP>, <186@kobold.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 45

I do not understand your statement that Allan England's argument is not a
good argument against banning handguns.

do you agree that:

1: it will be possible to get a handgun even if they are banned?
	(remember that they are banned here, and I can get one)

2: banning handguns are a restriction of liberty?

3: banning them will create a lot of expensive work for the people (such as
   the police) who will get set to the task of catching handgun owners?

if not, stop there, because we have some things to clear up. Now, to my
mind there are very few things that are worth the cost of (2), but most
anti-gun arguments I have read go: We Need to Ban Handguns to Save Lives.

Well, what I am questioning is how many lives will be saved. If you ban
handguns you do not stop the premeditated violence that Allan England was
talking about. these people will still be able to get handguns.

And there are lots of ways in which husbands and wives can kill each other
even without handguns -- rifles, knives, fists even -- strangulation and
electrocution are other good ways.

you will cut down on the accidental shootings of the sort where a small
boy pulls his father's loaded gun on his friend and shoots him by mistake,
though he can still do this with his father's hunting rifle.

and some people will get killed because they do not have a gun while their
assailant does.

This does not even mention the people who are going to be terrified at the
thought of not having a gun available whenever they think they have an
intruder. These people are not all wide-eyed loonies -- some of them just sleep
better at night knowing that they have a gun in their overnight table
just in case somebody decides to try to break into their home to rape
them.

Is it worth the cost? Always remember that unless omebody addresses the
question of how to imporove the morality of a society that kills, human
beings are going to find more and more ways to kill each other.

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura