🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1dp5mpINNfat@iskut.ucs.ubc.ca> unruh@physics.ubc.ca (William Unruh) writes:
>Many of the guns used in crimes are stolen- stolen from all those law
>abiding citizens who never use them. And if there are more available to
>steal they are easier to steal.

If anyone really thought that gun theft was a serious issue, they'd
enforce the relevant laws.  They'd encourage reporting.  However, the
reality is different.  Gun theft is a "free" crime - people who commit
it aren't punished.  Moreover, people who report it ARE punished.

A few weeks ago, there was a big story about a UPS-theft ring.  A
worker at a UPS facility was stealing gun shipments.  The US attorney
involved got on the tube screaming about how gun manufacturers didn't
report this sort of crime and how once they found out about it, they
solved it right away.  He used this to argue for a proposed new law.

Reality was a bit different.  The gun manufacturers reported the first
shipment stolen.  They reported every subsequent stolen shipment.
They were ignored.  They started investigating themselves and despite
not having useful investigative authority, narrowed things down so it
was a simple matter to find the thief.  All the time they kept
reporting both the thefts and what they'd found out.  Finally, the US
attorney decides to get involved and grab all the glory.

Any day you folks want to take gun theft seriously, you can do so.
Until you do, don't whine at me about it.

>> If you feel that they are just too dangerous for people to own, consider the
>>  numbers - there are about 200 million handguns in the US, and about 12000 
>>  firearms homicides per year, and 1400 accidental firarms deaths.  That makes
>>  firearms safer than automobiles.  
>> 
> Uh, hardly. divide the number of deaths by the number of times they
>are used, not by the number.

Sure.  There are billions of shots taken each year.  50% of US
households have guns.

Guns are still safer.

-andy
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