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From: jordan@greipa.UUCP (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.flame,net.legal
Subject: Re: Re: Personal Defense
Message-ID: <173@greipa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Apr-85 03:10:56 EST
Article-I.D.: greipa.173
Posted: Tue Apr 23 03:10:56 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Apr-85 03:16:36 EST
References: <350@idis.UUCP> <497@abnji.UUCP> <572@ahuta.UUCP> <498@lll-crg.ARPA> <419@utai.UUCP> <>
Reply-To: jordan@greipa.UUCP (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Organization: Genstar Rental Electronics, Palo Alto, Ca.
Lines: 61
Xref: watmath net.politics:8659 net.flame:9481 net.legal:1599
Summary: 

In article <> jla@usl.UUCP (Joe Arceneaux) writes:
>
>My  own feeling is that weapons, whatever they may be (including martial
>arts), are dangerous not only to other local citizens, but even to one's
>self  if one is UNTRAINED in using them.  My personal experience is that
>most people ARE  pretty  inexperienced  with  the  weapons  they  carry.
>*Especially* guns.
>
>------- 
>				    Joseph Arceneaux
>
>				    {akgua, ut-sally}!usl!jla


Hear hear!

Lets face it, guns have been around a long time and will probably be
here to stay a little longer (until we come up with something that kills
more efficiently). Do we rant and rave? Do we hide our heads in the sand
and hope that they will "go away"? I think not. I think the most salient
point to Joseph's response is that guns are not so much the danger as
the people using them. I don't have any of those magic statistics handy,
but I'd bet money on the fact that less people are killed with guns
(accidently or deliberately) in the midwestern states than the east
or west coast (and I'd also bet that the ratio of guns to population is
at least twice as high in the midwest). When I lived in Colorado as a young
boy I had gun safety hammered into my head nine ways to tuesday (I lived
in a very rural area). Woe betide the kid whose weapon accidently discharged!
I never heard of any incidents, but I'm sure the kid would have been
excommunicated.

Anyway, what I'm trying to point out in my usual windy
way is that the only REAL way to handle the firearms problem is to
increase public awareness, rather than making such an awareness harder
and harder to obtain. Many people even mildly fond of guns have usually
learned not to discuss them in the face of increasingly hostile/fearful
reactions. There are many people out there that could teach practical
and safe usage of firearms to the public, but where are they? Usually
in small cliques of gun lovers & survivalist types, only further enhancing
the mistrust (I read "Solder of Fortune", you do? Auuuuugghhh! Get away
from me!! Don't hurt me!). If we could only drop to T.V. image (which
depends on guns to liven things up to an almost sickening degree) and
get serious about firearms and their usage, I'm sure people would feel
safer, not the other way around. Who knows? We may ending up HAVING
to teach children the real facts about guns to dispel all the crap
they've absorbed about them on T.V. And using the "Don't EVER touch one
of these! They're dangerous!" approach won't be the right way. The forbidden
fruit principle applys, especially when T.V. has made them so facinating.

Let's de-mystify the subject, huh? Knowledge and a sober head beats
four aces..

-- 
				Jordan K. Hubbard
				@ Genstar Rental Electronics.
				Palo Alto, CA.
				{sun, decwrl, dual}!twg!greipa!jordan

I'm your private hacker, hacking for money, any old keyboard will do..

					- Tina Turing