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From: shallit@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Jeff Shallit)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: handgun control
Message-ID: <265@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Jan-85 16:24:57 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.265
Posted: Wed Jan  2 16:24:57 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Jan-85 04:43:37 EST
References: <>
Reply-To: shallit@gargoyle.UUCP (Jeff )
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
Lines: 40
Summary: 

In article <> ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) writes:
>To all those people wailing about how many people are killed
>by handguns and how much better everything would be if those
>guns were illegal:
>
>	What fraction of the handguns used to commit crimes
>	do you suppose are actually legally held?
>
>I know the answer for New York City:  almost none.  It is
>virtually impossible to get a handgun permit in New York.
>The fellow who shot the four punks on the subway, for instance,
>did so with an illegal gun: after he was mugged four years
>ago, he applied for a pistol permit but was turned down because
>he failed to demonstrate sufficient need for it.
>
>If enough people want something badly enough, making it illegal
>has about as much effect as closing your eyes and pretending
>it isn't there.
>
>If we really want to solve the crime problem, maybe we have to
>look a little deeper for the solution.

     You have listed at least one argument for effective NATIONAL
gun control.  You can't tell me that if there were strictly enforced
registration policies;  if illegal transfer of handguns made the
seller liable for the buyer's actions; and if it were easy for
police departments to request ownership information, that this
handgun madness wouldn't decrease significantly.

     The NRA is agains all these (to me, reasonable) actions.  Currently
it is becoming more and more difficult to trace ownership of a gun,
due in part to Reagan's attempt to dismantle the Handgun Control
Act of 1968.

     Look--you register your car, why not your gun?  A handgun's only
valid purpose is to kill another person.  I want those suckers
REGISTERED!

/Jeff Shallit