Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/12/84; site desint.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!whuxlm!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!desint!geoff From: geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) Newsgroups: net.politics,net.rec Subject: Re: Merry Christmas from the NRA Message-ID: <297@desint.UUCP> Date: Tue, 8-Jan-85 06:28:17 EST Article-I.D.: desint.297 Posted: Tue Jan 8 06:28:17 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 11-Jan-85 23:44:54 EST References: <2974@allegra.UUCP> <1912@sun.uucp> Organization: his home computer, Manhattan Beach, CA Lines: 61 Xref: watmath net.politics:6716 net.rec:197 In article <1912@sun.uucp> sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) writes: >> >> Last year, Handguns killed >> >> 10,728 in the united states > >Fact is, Handguns never kill anyone. >People kill People, and they use a variety of tools to do so. Bullshit, Sunny. You had to quote out of context to make your assertion anything less than ludicrous. Let's remember the whole article: 41 people in West Germany, 11 in Great Britain, etc. So you are telling us that Americans are 26165% more murderous than Germans. To quote Bill Cosby, RRRRIIIIGGGGHHHHTTTTT. Mike Royko gives out gun owner awards every year. This year, one of the awards went to a country singer in Dallas. Seems he decided to carry a derringer in his cowboy boot. His girlfriend was helping him take the boots off, and the derringer fell out, fired, and wounded the singer. Handguns don't wound people, boots wound people. John D. McDonald said it best. The difference between a handgun and a knife is that a handgun is impersonal. To successfully murder with a knife, you have to come close enough to engage in a struggle (and usually do so), and most of the time you have to stab repeatedly to actually achieve a kill, despite the fact that blood is very likely gushing from the first wound. Not a project for the weak of stomach. With a gun, on the other hand, you can be across the room. A small sickly person can, in a moment of anger, snatch up a gun, point, squeeze, and fell a burly man. The first shot is usually enough. This is not at all the same thing. Another thing McDonald said: "the only two things you can kill with a handgun are beer cans and people." I have never heard that successfully refuted. Handguns are good target weapons; like anything they can be fun to collect. They are not good for hunting. So I have to confess real suspicion about the people who are so rabid about defending handguns. Who do they want to shoot? Oh, right, the burglar. RRRRRIIIIIIGGGGGGHHHHHHTTTTTTT. You're going to wake up in the middle of the night, rip that pistol out from under your pillow, and plug that sucker square between the eyes. Starting from a sound sleep, and beating the guy to the draw. RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGHHHHHHHTTTTTTT. If you're quick enough to beat the guy to the draw, I bet it turns out to be your brother on a surprise visit. Any *really* dangerous intruder is going to be armed, cocked, and jumpy. Royko's first prize went to a fellow who picked up his gun instead of the ringing phone, and shot himself in the ear. That's the sort of thing sleepy people do. Me, I like Larry Niven's/Jerry Pournelle's phrase: "think of it as evolution in action." -- Geoff Kuenning ...!ihnp4!trwrb!desint!geoff