In a message dated 8/11/2003 1:14:19 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> That would only hold true if the criminals were aware of who did and who did > not own guns ahead of time. > I think the gist of the argument is that legal gun ownership deters crime in > general and there are stats that support this. > > But nothing is ever going to grind crime to a halt. > > I think this type of discussion tends to get people thinking about the > extremes as opposed to the general tenor of the realities of life. > > There are many many millions of guns in the US, yet only a few thousand or > so deaths in a given year. A small percentage of deaths by > any cause. > Its a mountain made out of a molehill. Except the mountain is usually not fatal and the molehill is fatal. Detering crime is good but the cost may overwhelm the benefit if even a statistically small number of innocent individuals (in particular the owner or a family member is killed). After all the death rate in the mole hill is %100. If we had effective gun control then the death rate would go down for both the criminals and the victims. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
