🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Mar.11.00.34.14.1993.3804@clam.rutgers.edu> felmey@clam.rutgers.edu (Robert Felmey) writes:
>Or, continuing with that ?LOGIC? why not just make automobiles in
>general illegal?  Even the amount of deaths by auto NOT INVOLVING
>alcohol is extremely high.  
> 
>Is your "license" (it's not actually a right) to drive more important
>than my right to own whatever weapon a may or may not wish to?


Indeed!  It IS logic, and you are asking the right questions, 
which is the whole purpose of logic; to lead to the asking of 
questions and the reasoning of answers.

The "why not make automobiles illegal" question is a good one, and
there are good answers.  There is obviously a weighing of values that
goes on, in determining if something should be banned.

You can ban the car, but the VAST majority of vehicles are NOT
involved in accidents, so banning is not a good solution.  To ban 
something is a drastic act, and should only be considered if 
a large percentage of what is going to be banned is what you 
really want banned.  You can ban alcohol for human consumption,
but there are arguments that it has its good uses too (although 
it would be hard to see someone putting for the productivity 
issues for booze like they could for the automobile).  

In short, the pros and cons must be weighed, and that is not a 
completely logic based process, but the fact that this consideration 
should happen BEFORE an effort to ban something is made, rather than
afterward, IS logic based.  Even though the individual componants 
that go into the decision may be based on other than absolute logic,
the framework in which the decision is considered and taken needs to
be logical.  Otherwise, how can you expect to achieve the goal?

Ah, the goal.  What is the goal in this case anyway?  To reduce the 
number of gun-related deaths, or to reduce the number of homicides?

If the goal is not clearly defined, how will you know what to 
steer toward, and how will you know when you have gotten there
so that you can stop taking action?




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