🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4967@gold.gvg.tek.com>, johna@psdcae1.gvg.tek.com (John Abt) writes:
> In article <GERRY.92Aug3104414@onion.cmu.edu> gerry@cmu.edu (Gerry Roston) writes:
> >CONCLUSION: Guns are not the cause of crime.  There is absolutely NO
> >evidence to even suggest a connection between gun ownership and crime.
> 
> Bullshit. The more guns there are, the more likely they will be used 
> in a crime. If there were *no* controls on handguns - then they would
> be everywhere - making it easier for criminals to get one (at any 
> time) and also making it more likely they would be used in a fit
> of passion. (This is pretty much  where the USA is today.)

No it isn't.  There is enormous variation in gun control laws in
the U.S.  In California, there is a 15 day waiting period on handgun
sales, with a background check, and that has been in effect since
1975.  By comparison, there are states like Vermont with no waiting
period, no background check, and no permit required to carry concealed.
Which is safer?

Of course, we have New York State, where a permit is required, and
hard to obtain, to buy a handgun.  But right next door is Vermont,
with effectively no controls, and FAR lower crime rates.  It is
the nature of the people that live in a state that determines the
crime rate, not the gun control laws.

There's the District of Columbia, where no new handguns can be sold 
or brought in, and its been that way since 1976.  Which is safer, 
DC or Virginia, where there is no waiting period, and an instant 
background check was only recently added?

> Would the NRA think it would be OK for 7-11 to hand out a free plastic
> 22 cal handgun to anyone who buys a Big-Gulp? Clearly you have to
> draw the line somewhere. This is where people disagree. I believe in
> our right to own firearms - but the NRA`s myopic knee-jerk reaction
> to oppose *any* controls is getting a lot of people killed.
> 
> John Abt

They oppose ANY controls?  No.  They support laws that make it
illegal for a convicted felon to buy a gun.  They support law
that enhance penalties for criminal use.  They have supported
instant check laws, such as Virginia has adopted.  They have
opposed the sort of waiting period laws that haven't worked,
and they oppose the Brady Bill, because it is designed not to
stop criminals, but to stop the rest of us from buying a handgun.


-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
"...the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their 
desire towards one another, men with men committing indecent acts and 
receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error." Rom. 1:27