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From: jwl@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Nothing to do with Gun Nuts
Message-ID: <21300@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 16-Oct-87 22:54:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.21300
Posted: Fri Oct 16 22:54:52 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Oct-87 04:36:54 EDT
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Reply-To: jwl@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (James Wilbur Lewis)
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Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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In article <7173@eddie.MIT.EDU> ooblick@eddie.MIT.EDU (Mikki Barry) writes:
>
>It is futile to compare any other society with the US, since it is only in
>the US where people are so attatched to their handguns and see some
>constitutional right in having them. 

Well, it's not so much that I'm attached to *guns*; I AM attached to
my life and want the right to effectively defend myself.

> I would be interested to know how
>Mr. Lewis and the other pro-gun types wouldcut down the amount of violentt 
>crime coitted d with ha  

Eh?  Looks like that was supposed to be "committed with handguns"....there
are plenty of workable ways to do this.  Banning handguns is not one of
them.  I suggest tougher sentencing for those who use guns to commit acts
of aggression.  Jails overcrowded?  Fine; get rid of drug laws and concentrate
on *violent* rather than victimless crimes!  

>I agree that attempting to ban them would
>be useless given this gun crazed society.  But are there any other solutions?

Make that simply "crazed society".  Here in the Bay Area we've got a guy
named Franklin Lynch who apparently gets his jollies from beating and robbing
elderly women.  He's thought to have killed at least two;  one of them the
other day after eluding a massive manhunt in Richmond and Reno.  He doesn't
use a gun; he just bludgeons his victims with whatever's handy.  There are
a hell of a lot of people who don't feel safe in their own homes, and for
good reason!  The police are unable to protect them, and their only option
is to protect themselves.  Why should these people be prevented from owning
handguns?  Especially when a handgun ban wouldn't have prevented the
violence they fear in the first place?

-- Jim Lewis
   U.C. Berkeley