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From: shallit@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Jeff Shallit)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Gun Control...again
Message-ID: <349@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Feb-85 00:50:48 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.349
Posted: Thu Feb 28 00:50:48 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Mar-85 08:06:13 EST
References: <>
Reply-To: shallit@gargoyle.UUCP (Jeff )
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
Lines: 29
Summary: 

davidl@tekig5.UUCP (David Levadie) writes:
>...  Why should I submit to the SLIGHTEST inconvenience
>because some two-bit jerk has a macho complex about guns and therefore
>abuses them? WHY???  WHY??? Nobody on this braindamaged net will even
>DISCUSS that question, even though SEVERAL people have asked it.  It
>must be just too mentally taxing to contemplate - it's easier to just
>go about blathering statistics, and arguing fruitlessly about whether
>or not "guns cause crime", etc., etc, etc...

I can think of at least two reasons why.

First, a considerable number of handguns later used in crimes have been
stolen from otherwise "responsible" owners.  In fact, Professor Mark
Moore of Harvard University has estimated that as many as 225,000
handguns are stolen *each year*.  A 1979 study by the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms found that 50% of criminally used
firearms were stolen.  In fact, the odds that a handgun will be used
to deter an intruder are *lower* than the odds that the handgun will
be stolen.

The second reason should be even more obvious.  Your *individual* rights
extend only to where they begin to infringe on others.  If society
determines that handguns are a societal menace, then your individual
right to own one must be subjugated for the general good.  Note that
I am not necessarily concluding that handguns must be confiscated;
but many dangerous materials and devices are regulated, and handguns
should be among them.

Jeff Shallit