Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxi.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihuxi!jaczak From: jaczak@ihuxi.UUCP (Russell Spence) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Gun Control again... A position Paper (please read) Message-ID: <985@ihuxi.UUCP> Date: Sun, 22-Jul-84 17:23:49 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxi.985 Posted: Sun Jul 22 17:23:49 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 23-Jul-84 02:19:37 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 70 > I still don't see a reason for the storing of a gun in your home. I > can agree with the sportsman wanting to go out and hunt (though I > personally can't see the fun in killing from three-quarters of a mile > away.) But we don't need to keep this at home anyway, it can be kept > safely under control at a local place (i.e. the local Police > Station.) This is also true for the Target Shootist. > ... > Therefor: my proposal is to allow private ownership of rifles and > target shooting handguns as long as it is kept at the local Police > Station, and must be checked out for your weekend of hunting or the > day of skeet shooting. And also put an automatic five-year > imprisonment doing hard-labor for anyone that has a gun outside of the > previous guidelines. I believe that a Bergular wouldn't carry a gun > except to protect himself from the crazed Homeowner/Vigillante, > especially when it led to a long time automatically in the slammer. > > Walt Pesch I'd just like to make a few comments about your position. It sounds like a reasonable suggestion, but I have some problems with it. In a free society (which we claim to be) the government should not be allowed to control private property in such a manner, besides the fact that like most gun control suggestions, it is impractical. A man could still go and check out his gun and THEN shoot his wife. It would provide a saftey buffer against crimes committed in the heat of passion, but it would also provide a great inconvience to the honest people who need their guns (hunters who need their shotguns at 4:30am on Saturday morning so that they can do some duck hunting). Another point: I think that most people's prejudices against guns are caused by conditioning brought about by violence on TV and on news-casts. People don't realize that compared to the number of people who own guns, the percent- age that are used in violent crimes is very very small, and that when you talk about gun control you are talking about restricting the rights of a great many people just to control the criminal activities of a very small number of people. I have just moved to Chicago from Oklahoma City. I have grown up with guns and own handguns, shotguns, and rifles. I enjoy shooting, but also bel- ieve that those who mis-use guns (use them in crime) deserve to be locked up and given the harshest possible penalty. In Oklahoma, almost everyone I knew owned guns, yet I have never seen a gun fired at another person, much less a murder. In fact, the only people I have seen with guns in public are police officers. Because of the amount of violence seen on TV, I think that people have a mis-conception about the amount of violence perpetrated by gun-wielding, ruthless criminals. I also think that people have a mis- conception about the average NRA member. They are not all knee-jerk, ultra-conservative, John Birchers. My parents live on a farm, and my father and I enjoy going out in the back yard and target shooting with our pistols. My father also hunts and he is member of the NRA because he doesn't want his right to shoot taken away. About gun control. There are better ways to control the problem of criminal violence that don't affect people's right to own property. To use my father as an example. When you talk about gun control you are talking about taking away his right to shoot even though he is a law-abiding patriotic citizen. Isn't this missing the mark a little? Shouldn't you be restricting the right of the criminals to threaten the lives of innocent people instead? The problem lies with the courts and our legal system. We should be restrict- ing crime and not the ownership of guns that are SOMETIMES used in conj- unction with that crime. Here is a question I would like all of you on the net to think about. How many of you have witnessed an act of violence that was perpetrated by someone with a gun? And what gun control laws would have kept this from happening? Compare this with the number of people that you know who own guns and use them properly. I am interested in your responses. Please send me replies. -- Russell Spence ihuxi!jaczak AT&T Technologies Naperville, IL