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From: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Handgun control (again)
Message-ID: <292@mit-vax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 04:00:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-vax.292
Posted: Mon Jul  1 04:00:37 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 03:11:44 EDT
References: <484@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <> <493@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <> <503@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <288@kontron.UUCP>
Reply-To: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe)
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 43
Summary: 

In article <288@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:

>Ever tried to carry a rifle or shotgun while working in the garden?
>Handguns are appropriate when you need your hands free.

Hmmm. They must be IMPOSSIBLE in combat! If your life is *so* much in
danger that you could be killed in you garden, I think you could manage
to deal with the rifle (handguns are *really* hard to aim anyway.)

>And there isn't a sheriff in the whole state of California who supported
>this last gun control measure; most of the police chiefs in California
>also opposed it.  Police chief McNamara is quite unique.

That's a lot of sheriffs. Are you sure?

>> Wrong again, Don.  Look at Washington, D. C., where both the murder
>> rate and crime rate went down by 25% after a strict gun control law
>> was enacted there.  Look at Massachusetts, where the homicide rate
>> decreased by 20% after a gun control law enacted there. 
>What was happening to crime rates in the country as a whole during that
>same time? 

Who cares? If crimes rates increase, I will feel safer living in Massachusetts.

>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?

-- 
Charles Forsythe
CSDF@MIT-VAX
"The Church of Fred has yet to come under attack.
    No one knows about it."
        -Rev. Wang Zeep