🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1ie616INN2ph@mirror.digex.com>, dougnews@access.digex.com (Doug Humphrey) writes:
> In article <1993Jan5.193851.19612@clsi.COM> kevin@clsi.com writes:
> >
> >How about in the context of Bosnia. 
> 
> How about it?  Why don't you tell us your view?

There are a lot of unecessarily dead civilians. If the military were the only
people with guns it would have been a lot less messy, and could probably been
sorted out through negociation. As it is every faction seems to be fighting it
out with everyone else.

> ...

> >> 2) military authority that is able to step in and deal with serious
> >>    threats, but which is independent in its thinking and control, 
> >>    and which is made up of the people, and not of a seperate "caste"
> >>    of favored elites.  Thus the military, through its people, is subject
> >>    to the same conditions that the general populace is subject to.
> >
> >A vote for Oliver North ?
>
> I obviously have failed to clearly state my point, since the Oliver
> North comment is not relevent to it.  I apologise profusely.
> 
> As to Oliver North, any system will have failures; the few that happen 
> should not be used to crucify the many.  For each Oliver North, there 
> are a million military personnel who have had the chance to do similar
> abuse of power, and have not.  You are unfair to them.

My point is that neither the army (nor the CIA) should be able to act indepently
without accountability. In a crisis there may not be time to consult, but these
organisations are supposed to be extensions of the democratically elected
government. They appear to be self-motivated, and are therefore IMHO
untrustworthy.

> ...

> >  a) A 9mm semi-auto handgun, or
> >
> >  b) A fully automatic assault rifle
> >
> 
> For home defense the full auto assault rifle is a really bad 
> choice; you will endangeer everyone in the arc of fire,

Depends on the ammo.

> ... 
> If you want one weapon for both missions, the 12 guage shotgun
> can hardly be beat.

I said that in a dc.general posting months ago.

> ...
> Given the strict choice, I would chose the 9mm if I thought the
> main use was home defence, and I would try to get some (sort of)
> armor piercing ammo (note that AP ammo is already strictly outlawed)
> in case I needed to go against people who were likely to be wearing 
> body armor.
> 
> If I felt that there was revolution in the air, and that the main 
> threat was going to be the government, then the assult rifle might
> have to be the choice.
> 
> Still, why not buy both?  I have.

Because the original discussion was about restricting the availability of semi-
auto handguns, and by your reasoning we would be better of with shotguns and 
assault rifles.

Kev.

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