Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: $Revision: 1.6.2.16 $; site inmet.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!pesnta!greipa!decwrl!decvax!yale!inmet!nrh From: nrh@inmet.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Congratulations to the NRA Message-ID: <7800348@inmet.UUCP> Date: Thu, 4-Jul-85 17:05:00 EDT Article-I.D.: inmet.7800348 Posted: Thu Jul 4 17:05:00 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 03:18:36 EDT References: <481@gargoyle.UUCP> Lines: 38 Nf-ID: #R:gargoyle:-48100:inmet:7800348:000:1907 Nf-From: inmet!nrh Jul 4 15:05:00 1985 >/**** inmet:net.politics / mit-vax!csdf / 4:01 pm Jul 3, 1985 ****/ > >>Not that I'm a "soldier of fortune" type, but I can imagine several ways >>to kill people using my bare pinkies ("pinkies" here refers to trigger >>fingers, as it did in my article). That you, who are apparently unable >>to duplicate this mental effort, should presume to dictate that pinkies >>are safe but guns are not, (given that neither is lethal short of human >>impulse or fantastic accident) disturbs me. > >Okay! Okay! This is the SECOND response I have gotten insisting that >pinkies are deadly weapons. Here is my final response: > >I challenge you to a fight. That's right. You will have all of your >fingers taped down (except pinkies). You may use only your pinkies. I >will be totally unarmed except for a small handgun. May the best man >win. I have the feeling that this conflict would not settle the issue. :-). >Sheesh. Sometimes I wonder if people can see the forest through the >trees. I was making a point! I know some martial arts as well as some >anatomy and lots of physics... I KNOW pinkies could be used as weapons >but still... The point of MY original article was that it is not the weapons which truly cause deaths, but the deadly intentions of the people wielding those weapons. I presented this idea in satirical form, pointing out that in a specific handgun-death, one may blame pinkies, the lack of armor, or some other extraneous cause, but (and I did not explicitly state this) the real cause of the deaths is deadly human intent. Those who would outlaw handguns are attacking the symptom, not the disease, and they are attacking a "symptom" that occurs in the healthy as well (those who own handguns need not have lethal intent). Charles' later note to the effect that all who are against handgun control are idiots says more about him than the issue or about handgun control opponents.