Brian Holtz
Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:30:09 -0800
Jeff Chan wrote: BH> If the question is "what weapons should be legal?", then an answer referencing weapons of mass destruction is clearly not a red herring. <BH
JC> It's a red herring unless you can show us nuke or smallpox bullet availability. <JC So stealing smallpox or a nuke from the places they're kept should be considered an equivalent crime to stealing a typewriter or file cabinet? And after such a theft, should possession of smallpox or a nuke not be a crime if it can't be shown that they were stolen? BH> Weapons are defined as tools designed to attack people or property. <BH JC> Maybe by you. Many people define them simply as tools. <JC "Weapon" and "tool" aren't synonyms. JC> So if Charles Manson comes into my home and starts murdering friends and family, and I shoot him with a gun, I've "attacked" him? It's called defense, and the legitimacy of defensive force is an entire foundation of libertarian thought. <JC My use of "attack" above just meant "to harm violently", and yes, legitimate defense can include actions that are "attacks" in the tactical sense without being initiations of force in the ethical sense. BH> Howitzers are legal in Switzerland? <BH JC> Yes. <JC Allegedly so -- but with a license. How about grenades? Or Stinger missiles? If those are legal in Switzerland, then Switzerland is not very smart. Brian Holtz Libertarian candidate for Congress, CA14 (Silicon Valley) http://marketliberal.org <http://marketliberal.org/> blog: http://knowinghumans.net <http://knowinghumans.net/> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/