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From: majka@ubc-visi.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: BANG BANG You're dead
Message-ID: <506@ubc-visi.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 12-Nov-83 00:37:19 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.506
Posted: Sat Nov 12 00:37:19 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Nov-83 05:43:01 EST
Lines: 55

From: Marc Majka <majka@ubc-vision.UUCP>

Laura:

I agree with everything you say in your three points:

1.  US Americans are nice people.
2.  US Americans (and the rest of us) have a responsibility to improve our
    awareness of the REAL horror of violence.
3.  Just having a gun does not make a person violent.

All well and good. But my points were:

A.  Violent people (who might not look too violent) should not have their
    access to guns improved by making guns legal.
B.  Normally non-violent people easily BECOME violent in highly emotional or
    stressful situations. This results in people with holes.
C.  As a society, it is not in our best interests to give guns to ANYONE. The
    smaller the number of people (of either kind) waving guns, the smaller
    the number of dead people.

The only point in your discussion that has anything to do with gun ownership
is (3).  My reply is: Just having a gun makes it much easier to make holes
in people.  There are many reasons that a person may become violent. If they
have a gun when they become violent, they may use it to make dead people.

You conclude with this statement:

> Do you see now why I am opposed to banning handguns? Banning them does not 
> address the real problem and only gives the illusion of safety, while
> creating a new class of criminal and enhancing the government's power.
> And the same organized crime that so enjoys the drug laws and loved
> prohibition will love handgun regulation. (At least they are enjoying
> it in Canada today...)

No, I do not see.  The real problem is that people get killed with guns. I
feel safe (wrt guns at least) in Canada. I DO NOT feel safe in the US of A.
Better yet, the statistics available about gun related injurys and deaths
tell me that I am safer in Canada.  

A new class of criminal??? Do you mean gun owners?  If that is what you
think, then why not make EVERYTHING legal so that there would be NO CRIME AT
ALL!

Society has (as it should) the power to legislate for the general well-being
of the population. 

Would that same organized crime be unhappy if guns were legal?  Perhaps they
would, if citizens could stage gun-battles with them in the streets.  I
doubt that would happen.  Do you have any evidence that organized crime is
"enjoying" handgun regulation in Canada?  Can you show that a large number
of innocent people are being killed by organized crime in Canada?  The
newspapers certainly don't talk about it (I don't have a TV either)

Marc Majka