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From: ags@pucc-i (Seaman)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: McDonald's (San Diego) Massacre
Message-ID: <369@pucc-i>
Date: Mon, 23-Jul-84 11:28:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: pucc-i.369
Posted: Mon Jul 23 11:28:11 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 00:27:41 EDT
References: <859@pucc-h>
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 30

>  	Thank you the National Rifle Association for vigorously campaigning
>  	to make handguns, rifles, and such available to everyone who needs
>  	them for such useful work.  Too bad your executive committee wasn't
>  	having brunch there...

Not that I'm fond of the NRA, but I'm sure we can find enough blame to 
spread around here.  How about the minimum wage laws?  There is a discussion
starting up in net.politics that was inspired by a recent TV program which
made the point that minimum wage laws are a major (some would say THE major)
cause of unemployment.

It is no secret that Huberty had recently lost a job as a security guard, and
that he had moved to southern California from Ohio after losing a job there.
His wife said he had begun "hearing voices" after losing the second job
and he actually attempted to make an appointment with a mental health clinic.  
They apparently did not return his call (did he try only once?).  Another 
mass murderer in the news recently, Alton Coleman, was described as a "grade 
school dropout" who apparently had never held a job.  

What is it like to be told by society that you are not good enough to work 
for a living?  Losing a minimum-wage job must be something like falling off
a cliff.  It is true that there are millions of unemployed who do not go around
killing people, but there seems to be a segment of the population which does
not respond well to extended periods of unemployment.  Often these people make
headlines by killing their families and themselves.  Huberty and Coleman
apparently had a different idea.
-- 

Dave Seaman			My hovercraft is no longer full of 
..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags		eels (thanks to my confused cat).