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From: rohn@randvax.UUCP (Laurinda Rohn)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: handgun control
Message-ID: <2229@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Jan-85 15:40:07 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.2229
Posted: Thu Jan  3 15:40:07 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Jan-85 01:45:31 EST
References: <> <265@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <2223@randvax.UUCP> <2228@randvax.UUCP>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 30

> > from randvax!rohn (me)
> > I'd be interested in answers from the control advocates to the following
> > question:  Assuming some sort of national handgun control is instituted,
> > why do you think that that will prevent criminals from getting handguns
> > illegally, just as most of them do now?
> 
> from --- das (David Shlapak)
>     That's the whole point of NATIONAL gun control...making it harder to
>     get a handgun anywhere.  One of the most pernicious characteristics of
>     a handgun is its size; it's not at all difficult to carry one from
>     point A, where there are no or lax gun control laws, to point B,
>     where stricter regulations may exist.  A national law could be quite
>     effective in preventing this traffic in semi-legal weaponry.
> 
>     Remember, most "illegal" handguns were legal at some point in their
>     travels...

I don't deny that nationally controlling handguns would make them harder
to get.  I'm just not yet convinced that criminals would have a *much*
harder time getting them.  Heroin is illegal everywhere in the US, but
it does seem to turn up a lot, and from what I'm told, if you have the
money, it isn't hard to get.  Why would handguns be any different?  (That
wasn't meant as a rhetorical question...:-) )


					Lauri
					rohn@rand-unix.ARPA
					..decvax!randvax!rohn

"Never test for an error condition you can't handle."