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From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Re: Life Expectancy
Message-ID: <2397@mit-hermes.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 19-May-85 00:09:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2397
Posted: Sun May 19 00:09:10 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 20-May-85 04:33:53 EDT
References: <591@astrovax.UUCP> <2395@mit-hermes.ARPA> <25992@lanl.ARPA>
Distribution: net
Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 25

>> Men kill themselves in all kinds of ways including...
>> ***********************************************
>> * > Having anything to do with firearms       *
>> ***********************************************

> Please tell us the source of statistics that suggest this.  I believe
> the shooting sports are considerably safer than people think.  I've
> seen some statistics but I can't recall where, at the moment.  At
> least you put it at the bottom of your list.

No statistics, but I was referring to accidents and preventable homicides
caused by firearms. You're right, target shooting is done under very carefully
controlled conditions, but every year there's a rash of hunting acidents; kids
(almost always boys) find their parents' (almost always dads') guns and play
games with them, with sometimes tragic results; occasionally someone will 
blaze away at a burglar and have to explain his actions to the paperboy's 
parents; people (mostly men) are shot accidentally by policemen; some
people (mostly male people) are killed by "unloaded" guns; and this is 
not an exhaustive list. What I meant by "preventable homicides" is when people
get in an argument, tempers are high, someone has a lethal weapon handy, and 
someone else ends up dead. Sure, you can kill a person any number of ways, but
most of them give the victim a better chance of escape, or at least survival.

Was I guilty of over-generalization in saying "Having _anything_ to do with
firearms"? Sorry.