Is it me or isn't it obvious that without campaign finance reform we
won't be able to pass any reasonable gun control laws because of the NRA?
Robert C
On 12/16/12 6:23 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
Owen -
I don't want a neighbor with a bazooka. Or hand-grenade. I'm fine
with well educated gun owners with hand guns and hunting rifles. But
do we really want neighbors with ground-to-air rocket launchers?
I think this is the conditions too much of the third world where we
(and our surrogates) have been meddling are living under. e.g.
Palestine, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc... but that is another question
all together.
Cordingly -
>Isn't there a danger of going back to paralysis by analysis...
happens every time (so far). Tell the grieving parents that.
I think this is one of the risks of being a considered individual or
group... and it butts up next to knee jerk reactions. It is actually
*hard* to stay on the fence, in my experience.
All -
I personally would like to see few if any rapid-fire and high-capacity
handguns *or* rifles in the hands of most "civilians" and then a major
downgrade in the hands of the civil law, then in the military. I
think we would have a lot fewer tragic accidents for sure, and
probably a few less tragic events like this most recent one if this
were the case. But that doesn't mean I see a clear path to making
that happen nor think a useful number of people in our culture would
agree to those restrictions voluntarily. Sigh!
I recently received two handguns when my father passed away. I
learned to shoot them when I was young (along with his rifles which
went elsewhere). One is the M1917 Colt .45 revolver my grandfather
carried in WWI and by my father during infrequent periods where his
job with the US Forest Service included a minor law-enforcement
aspect. I'm not that eager to simply melt it down, though I
deliberately decline to keep any ammunition for it. I've made it
through my entire adult life without more than passing contact with
handguns and I think I can make it the rest of the way without aiming
or firing one.
My wife wanted me to disassemble it for her to make it into an art
project. For the moment, we have compromised on her using the spare
barrel (the original one, which had been replaced when it sustained
some minor damage) for a project. We'll see what comes next.
Perhaps trigger locks. But that only blunts the overt risk of keeping
these two handguns intact... it doesn't exactly address the larger
question of gun-culture and related violence-culture.
Carry On,
Steve
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
