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From: crs@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: rape and other assorted stuff
Message-ID: <27792@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 16:20:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: lanl.27792
Posted: Mon Jul  1 16:20:35 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 04:03:14 EDT
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Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
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> > Since most people who own guns for self defense have difficulty hitting
> > the side of a barn while on a firing range how do you expect them to 
> > be "equalized" in a situation where everything which happens moves so 
> > terribly fast.
> > 
> I'm sorry you know such terrible shots.  They must be pretty bad, because
> I don't consider myself a particularly capable marksman, and I have no
> problem hitting a rapist-sized target at 15 yards.  More important, if
> you can't shoot a rapist at the more realistic distance of five feet,
> I doubt you can drive a car successfully either.
> 
The thing that bothers me about this is *how do you know it is a
rapist* at 5 feet?  I wouldn't imagine that the rapist is going to
make it any more obvious than necessary until close enough to grap his
quarry.  A well trained shooter with a very accessible weapon may be
fast enouth to respond in time under those conditions.  Unfortunately,
too many people don't bother to learn how to use it at all, much less
become proficient with it.  Besides, many of our bigger urban areas,
where I assume a high percentage of rapes occur, have the most
restrictive gun laws -- we wouldn't want law abiding citizens going
around injuring our criminals, would we?  (Criminals aren't bound by
gun laws -- if, after all, you plan to commit murder or armed robbery,
the illegality of your gun is the least of your worries.  But that is
another story.)

I've already suggested a shotgun rather than a handgun for defense in
your home in an earlier article.

While I believe that most, if not all, anti-gun laws are, at best,
misguided, I'm also not convinced that having a lot of undisciplined,
untrained and largely incompetent people running about the streets is
a good idea.  (And, yes, I know that is inconsistent.)

All opinions are, of course, only mine.

-- 
Charlie Sorsby
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