From: "E.J. Totty", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[...]
April 27, 2000
D.C.'s strict laws on guns not enough to halt shooting
By John Drake and Arlo Wagner
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
...
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat,
said that weapons flood into Washington, which has the
nation's tightest gun laws, from nearby states with weaker
laws.
[...]
Her argument is non sequitur.
One presumes that because of the crime in
the District, that it too would soon spill-over into all of
the surrounding states.
That it has not, can only mean that it follows
that the surrounding states which are at least equally
abundant in the number of firearms, would also experience
the same level of violence.
I dare say that the number of firearms are very
likely in greater numbers outside the District.
It follows too, that for a number of arms to arrive
on one location, there must be appropriately larger numbers
elsewhere. If the other locations with the surplus of firearms
do not experience the same level of violence as the District,
then the truth of the matter of violence lies elsewhere.
With that, and neglecting to consider the
psychological implications of violence, one could effectively
argue using pure logic, the it is precisely as a result of the
firearms laws in the District, that the firearms are being misused.
Others have written that it is a shift in the thinking
of modern people, that has resulted in the level of violence
way beyond what was acceptable in former days for the
European cultures, and maybe most other cultures too.
I've a feeling that it is government, with every intent
to control the citizenry, and having exerted the most visible
level of violence - at home and abroad, which has set the
example in people's minds for how to handle a perceived
adversary.
How ironic it is - and perhaps appropriate too,
that the seat of government for the most prolific of the violent
prone, is itself embroiled in the canard of its own making.
If we don't become a Phoenix real soon, then we
are likely to become yet another Roman Empire.
ET
--
The argument they use is obviously bogus, because the crime rate in
DC is higher than the surrounding cities - so the higher availability
of firearms in Virginia and Maryland is coupled with a lower crime
rate.
Steve.
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