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From: sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.rec
Subject: Re: Merry Christmas from the NRA
Message-ID: <1931@sun.uucp>
Date: Fri, 11-Jan-85 18:41:50 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.1931
Posted: Fri Jan 11 18:41:50 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 02:38:50 EST
References: <2974@allegra.UUCP> <1912@sun.uucp> <297@desint.UUCP>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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Xref: watmath net.politics:6809 net.rec:208

> 	...!ihnp4!trwrb!desint!geoff Geoff Kuenning writes:
> 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.
Yes, I am.  Our culture is rampant with violence.  Turn on your televison
and watch how we're being indoctrinated to ACCEPT violence as normal.  You
don't see any where near as much real love (ref: net.singles: what is love?)
as you do real violence on the BIG BROTHER BOX
> 
> [numerous ancedotal evidence of bozos having accidents]
there are more accidental deaths from automobiles than from guns.
> 
> 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.
So fucking what?  And you'd deprive your grandmother the right to stop an
intruder in her house from raping her visiting grandaughter?
> 
> 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.
Wrong again.  There are quite a few who take handgun hunting quite seriously.
> So I have to confess real
> suspicion about the people who are so rabid about defending handguns.  Who
> do they want to shoot?
Rapists, criminals, burglers, and anyone else who invites themselves into my
home
> 
> 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.
No, I'm not that stupid.  The burgler alarm will let me get the drop on him
and perform a citizens arrest.
> 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.
Yes, but so am I, especially when awakened in the middle of the night by 
things which go bump.
> 
> 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."
> -- 
Oh, it is, it is.  Welcome to 1984, you lover of Big Brother.
-- 
{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sun!sunny