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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
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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