Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site mit-vax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!mit-vax!csdf From: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Congratulations to the NRA Message-ID: <298@mit-vax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 1-Jul-85 08:56:18 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-vax.298 Posted: Mon Jul 1 08:56:18 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jul-85 03:37:11 EDT References: <484@gargoyle.UUCP> <7800340@inmet.UUCP><516@unc.UUCP> Reply-To: csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe) Distribution: net.politics Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 47 Summary: In article <516@unc.UUCP> oliver@unc.UUCP (Bill Oliver) writes: >In article csdf@mit-vax.UUCP () writes: >>It is impossible for untrained people to kill with their bare pinkies. > >As a pathologist, I can tell you that this is simply untrue. I stand corrected. I should have said IMPROBABLE. I suppose you have many stories of people being mugged at "pinky-point"? >>Similarly it is impossible for an idiot to post a pro-gun message >>without a terminal. > >This is also untrue, and gratuitously insulting. Please. Not all >people who support individual ownership of weapons in the United >States are idiots, Once again, I stand corrected. Replace "pro-gun" with "pro-handgun". It is also true that many people who support private ownership of firearms are not idiots, many are clever enough to block reasonable legislation. In any case, I was implying that the poster of the message I was replying to was an idiot. His argument was: there are lots of ways to kill people therefore, why try to remove one (handguns). This is a stupid argument (sorry if you're offended by my blatent value judgement). It can easily be reversed: why not legalize napalm? As a matter of fact, I have made napalm in the lab and I could do it again. If I did, however, make enough to use it as a weapon, I'd be breaking the law. "If you outlaw napalm only outlaws will have napalm." I don't envision this slogan inspiring any NRA members... >and no purpose is served by such a statement >other than to inflame. Political discussions are often filled with inflamitory value judgements. If I say a pro-handgun advocate is an idiot, by all means prove me wrong, but there's no need to dwell on my opinion of his or her intelligence. -- Charles Forsythe CSDF@MIT-VAX "The Church of Fred has yet to come under attack. No one knows about it." -Rev. Wang Zeep