Posted on 11/11/2003 4:03:03 AM PST by Siamese Princess
John Lott (buy his book), Richard Poe (buy his), and all manner of libertarians have been making the case that widespread gun ownership decreases crime; and that personal gun ownership is consistent with, even guaranteed by, the 2nd amendment. Even the government, following the war between the states, saw it that way as freed black slaves were guaranteed gun-ownership rights because, as several courts decided, gun ownership was the most important test of whether a man is truly free.
Thomas Sowell and John Lott have shown that multiple-shooting incidents, where a single nut goes on a killing spree, happen mainly in gun-free zones (such as government schools), and that multiple shootings are usually terminated only when someone else shows up with a gun to stop the shooter. An exception would be the Columbine massacre, where the shooters killed themselves when they ran out of nearby victims; in that one, the armed sheriffs deputies stayed outside, away from the shooting, until the shooting stopped. They performed this heroic act on orders from the sheriff.
It should be clear why the government and your local police dont want you to have guns: If you can defend yourself, you dont have as much need of the police, or indeed, the military. More ominously, you can defend your person, property, and family from the government itself: An armed and educated America would not only need to be less afraid of such government crimes as Ruby Ridge and Waco; that sort of America might clamor for the reduction of the size of government, or even the institution of a different one (a natural right our founders understood and held dear). That our government doesnt like the prospect of individual gun ownership is not unique to the US governments all over the world have gun-control laws. Naturally, such laws are no more effective elsewhere than they are in the US.
But for the time being, it remains possible for us to purchase and own guns. My recommendation: One pistol per family member, at least one short-barreled shotgun per family, and a deer rifle with a scope per family. Pistols offer mobile, concealed personal protection. Shotguns offer effective home defense. A pump shotgun is even better than a semi-automatic, since the sound of you chambering the first round is usually enough to send an intruder running for his life, so everybody wins he learns a lesson that might prevent him from entering the next house and you dont have nightmares about the mess his guts made in your house. The high-powered rifle, for its part, provides a threat even the government must take seriously. Few flak jackets do a very effective job of stopping a heavy, pointed bullet traveling at 2800 feet per second (the most powerful pistols manage at best 1500 fps with a lighter bullet). Additionally, you can be a threat from hundreds of yards with a deer rifle. A large city heck, even a neighborhood full of people owning such weapons would be a formidable problem for the ATF.
So there are bunches of reasons for me to want everybody to have guns crime goes down, and I would venture to place a wager that government would slowly begin shrinking as well.
And I cant think of a reason for everybody not to have guns. I dont even care if convicted criminals have them, as long as the rest of us do. Just as no criminals walk into a gun show to start a shooting rampage, we can be confident that few, or no, criminals would go on shooting rampages in offices, post offices, schools, or shopping malls.
Of course, our political left wing warns us ad infinitum that our society would deteriorate into daily shootouts if everybody walked around carrying a gun. Not so. Think about the current situation: We are allowed to drive cars and to carry baseball bats. You can kill lots of people with either. Nobody ever does it. The 99% of us who arent criminal kooks simply dont go around hurting other people. Think about all the people you work with, see at the grocery store, meet at church and social occasions: How many of those people would you fear? Some of the stronger ones among them already are able to kill you with their fists. How often do they do that?
So: It has been established empirically that we would have less ordinary crime if everybody walked around armed. It has been established empirically that we would have less fear of foreign invasion, and less fear of terrorist attacks, under the same conditions (remember the statement by WWII Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto: "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."; and see how often Switzerland has been invaded). It was established logically by our government itself in the early days that the government would be better kept at bay with gun ownership. And those towns that have high levels of gun ownership prove what common sense suggests: Widespread gun ownership doesnt make criminals out of ordinary people only criminals are made to feel unsafe when everybodys armed. Indeed, data in the US show that you and I are more trustworthy gun owners than the cops themselves.
Go out and buy yourself some guns today, and give some as gifts. Youll love yourself for it, and make me feel safer at the same time.
Or have the T.V. fixed!
Get a life ic
You sound like the "lifeguard ted" changing the words to meet your requirements
I just gotta ask: ARE YOU A fedgovshill?
P.S. I will give you credit for not listing anymore shows for Me to tape for you.
What's your take on (W)horuchi and his killing of a Mother holding Her BABY as he shot Her?
Or was that you on the trigger???
I've worked with them. I'll never do it again. The ones I met shouldn't be allowed to do anything more than put tax stamps on whiskey bottles and cigarette packages, and then only under very close supervision.
As far as being able to carry guns, I'd sooner give an idiot child an MP-5 as the clowns I met from the BATF. At least you can teach an idiot child the basics of firearms safety.
L
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Is that why the Wehrmacht overthrew the SS in WW II Germany?
Because that is who cuts his (JBT ic's) paycheck
In what capacity? I would think the context of how you formed your opinions significant in weighing those opinions. After all, you have challenged the credibility of what is ostensibly an eye-witness based entirely on that opinion.
You said "worked." So either you are dissembling now, or you were misleading earlier.
So you say, but you still don't answer the questions. Instead, you fatuously speculate as to why those questions are asked; as if no one on FR has ever seen that trick before.
I've long held the suspicion that LEOs so often deal with the stupid and/or ignorant they develop the misguided notion anyone not in their circle is similarly stupid and/or ignorant. You provide ample justification for such suspicion.
As a Catholic, you must be familiar with the story of Father Jerzy Papaushka (phonetic spelling) of Poland, and the bone-jarring surprise of the police officers that murdered him when they were held to account for the crime. IIRC, they were actually in tears when they discovered they were going to be prosecuted for real. The "us and them" mentality develops by circumstance: not proximity.
Hyperbole? So far you are the one with all the Nazi equations.
Yup. Hyperbole. You will kindly note the only one tossing around "the n-word" between us is you. Nevertheless, you've contributed nothing here besides bovine incredulity to show how or why any such parallels would be inappropriate.
What witness. The guy made it all up.
You don't know that, and you've already admitted the only basis you have for discounting his report is its conflict with your opinion.
Frankly, his credibility exceeds your own if for no other reason than you're claiming proof of a negative (a logical impossibility), and you've been caught dissembling, red-handed.
It sounds like you have had many run ins with misunderstood LEO's.
You really should stick to evidence, and get out of the speculation business. You're not very good at it.
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