Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site gymble.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!think!harvard!seismo!umcp-cs!gymble!bennet From: bennet@gymble.UUCP (Tom Bennet) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Handgun control (again) Message-ID: <187@gymble.UUCP> Date: Tue, 9-Jul-85 00:12:24 EDT Article-I.D.: gymble.187 Posted: Tue Jul 9 00:12:24 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 9-Jul-85 22:28:21 EDT Distribution: na Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD Lines: 41 >From: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe) >Message-ID: <292@mit-vax.UUCP> > >>I'm not even sure why gun control is an issue --- there is more chance of >>making marijuana and heroin disappear than handguns --- and there's no >>chance *at all* of making those two go away. > >You're right about the latter, but the former statement is naive. >Handgun shipments into the US are legal. So is domestic production. They >could both be shut down sufficiently. Dope doesn't show up on X-rays. >Guns do. Hashish doesn't trigger metal detectors. Guns do. Marajauna >growers need a plot of dirt. Gunsmiths need precision tools. Putting the >gun trade to a standstill is not a pipe dream for bleeding heart >liberals. Tell me, if they can smuggle Levi's into Russia, how come >they don't smuggle handguns, too? How are X-rays going to distinguish smuggled guns in the middle of a large crate of automotive parts, especially when they've been disguised (placed inside something else perhaps)? Of course, we can always just hand-search all packages, crates, and automobiles entering the country; that will help unemployment as well. Where do you plan to put the metal detectors? Perhaps we could ring the entire US boarder with them. Oh yes, and cover the perimeter of the air space too. Of course, we'll have to ask all illegal aliens entering the country walk to through a detector. How precise a tool do you need to make a second-rate gun? How hard would it be to use a legit machine shop or small factory for a cover? Will it not be harder to find gun manufacturing inside a small building than to find a field of marijuana growing out in the open? Have not various illegal drugs been successfully manufactured in the US more than occasionally? Why don't they smuggle Russian calculators into the United States? Might be because 'cause there's no market for them. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A balanced diet is important: one must | Tom Bennet @ U of MD Comp Sci Dept occasionally change pizza places. | ..!ihnp4!seismo!umcp-cs!gymble!bennet