🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1oud58$iqu@sol.TIS.COM> mjr@tis.com (Marcus J Ranum) writes:
>>I find it difficult to believe that we, in virginia, are resposible for 
>>the breakdown in thesocial fabric in the rest of the united states.  Why 
>>must we have a restrictive law passed to offset problems through out the 
>>rest of the us.
>
>	You're not responsible for the breakdown of the social fabric.
>You're being made an example of. If the kind of crap we've been seeing
>continues to happen, it's just going to get worse. It's becoming pretty
>obvious that a lot of folks with guns are completely out of control.
>Since the authorities can't handle it, we can all look forward to
>knee-jerk reactions and stopgap measures. It's one of those cases of a
>few bad apples ruining the barrel.

I take issue with your comment that a "lot" of people with guns are out
of control.

I also think, more than anything, that the whole question of Virginia
has come up because the idea of an instant background check just drives
some of my less-enlightened fellow liberals crazy...

>	I've got to admit I'm torn. Here in DC, gunfire is responsible
>for 1/4 of the male deaths between ages 16 and 20. No matter how you
>slice it, that *is* pretty scary. Yes, I know guns are "controlled"
>in DC - that's got nothing to do with it. 

I'd say that DC's gun laws have something to do with it.  Look at the
people doing the shooting, it's already illegal in 2 or 3 ways for them
to own their guns:  there are the general hardass DC gun laws and laws
against people too young to be responsible (18 for rifles/shotguns, 21
for pistols) owning guns.  Plus, I'm willing to bet that more than a
few of them have a history of violent felonies (and, in fact, many
should be on death row already, in a sane society).

One of the books I've read on gun control said that an intelligent gun
control law should 1) prevent violent jerks/loonies from getting guns
2) should not excessively impede upstanding citizens from getting guns.
DC's laws clearly fail the first function and, I believe, also fail the
second.

>The problem is rapidly
>escalating past the point where we can expect people to deal with it
>rationally. Not to say that anyone was *before*. There's a loonie
>driving around a friend of mine's neighborhood blowing folks away
>with a shotgun for no apparent reason. He's shot 4 people so far -
>just folks like you & me who were minding their own business got
>rewarded with a blast of pellets in the head.

And no one has had the capacity to shoot back.  That wouldn't last
long in this neighborhood and California has moderately strict gun
laws...

>	I suspect that the laws that are being passed in VA are the
>beginning of an avalanche. If I believed it would help the situation
>dramatically, I'd be all for it. I think the tighter restrictions
>on gun purchases and ownership *will* help, when (I no longer think
>it's a matter of "if") they get enacted. I'd rather see an across
>the board, well-thought-out social initiative to convince these
>guys to solve their problems with fisticuffs instead, but frankly
>I'll settle for anything that makes things better.

ANYTHING that makes things better?  Careful what you wish for young
man, you just may get it... :(

As for me, I'll send in another contribution to the NRA and do what
I can to curb those efforts.  Silly isn't it, since we both agree on
the problem and some aspects of the solution?

    don