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From: welsch@houxu.UUCP (Larry Welsch)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Gun Control - A personal experience
Message-ID: <433@houxu.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Sep-84 08:53:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxu.433
Posted: Mon Sep  3 08:53:08 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Sep-84 07:38:43 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 35

I know I am bring up an old subject, gun control, and you may flame away
at me for doing it.  But, every once in a while something happens that
really strikes home.

Yesterday afternoon I went over to dinner with my second cousin's family.
She lives in a pleasant N.J. residential area.  I noticed her cat of 12
years had a cast on her leg, and asked what happened.  Well last week my
cousin, her husband, and my great aunt were sitting out on the porch at
about 10:30 PM.  A car came by with a search light and all of a sudden
they heard a shot.  The car then accelerated in one hell of a hurry.  My
cousin's husband went out and smelled gun smoke, so he called the police.
They couldn't find the cat.  The next day the cat crawled home with a 22
caliber bullet in her leg.  

This wasn't the mafia, these were kids who were out on a Saturday night
with nothing better to do!  No one was identified.  Someone, could very
easily have been killed in this random act of violence.

My question is what can we do to prevent this type of violence.  To me the
only solution is gun control!  People with a legitimate need for guns,
such as farmers or hunters should have them.  But, the guns should be
registered and closely controlled.  Much the same way we register cars.  If
a person is found with an unregistered gun it should be considered a crime
with up two 6 months jailing.

Now, I am not so naive as to believe this will stop all random violence,
but it sure will reduce it.

							Larry Welsch
							houxu!welsch

PS. BTW neither my cousin or her husband own a gun and this incident did
not cause them to run out and purchase one.  Perhaps if they had owned a
gun someone might be dead.