Puh, Pat. You cannot deny your American upbringing. Me, myself and I - full circle. Fear is for others.
There are non-criminal people living today who really need guns. And there are non-criminal people living on this beautiful planet who really need cars. Let's start thinking what kinds of people these could be. You might find it helpful to begin with finding potential reasons for such alien behaviour. On 3 Feb., 14:11, Pat <[email protected]> wrote: > On 2 Feb, 17:24, Ian Pollard <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Chris, > > > I don't think it's about misperception. A car, a pool, a knife... each of > > these serve essential, non-violent, functions. A gun is designed to kill; it > > has no other purpose. If people want to shoot targets, use a gun that shoots > > an infrared beam at an electronic target, or play a video game. In terms of > > the theory, eliminating guns as a risk makes a lot of sense. > > > Eliminating cars has inherent functional problems for our society. > > Much the same ones as eliminating guns. The biggest one being that > those who have them and want them simply WON'T be handing them over to > anyone. This leaves ALL the guns in criminal hands. Personally, I'd > rather have one myself, so the criminal doesn't ALWAYS have one up on > me. It's obvious that we don't NEED guns or cars, as humans lived > many millenia prior to their invention, but, as you say, eliminating > things that people want is always tricky. > > > Ian > > > 2009/2/2 Chris Jenkins <[email protected]> > > > > In 'Freakonomics', Steven Levitt explored the remarkable phenomenon of > > > parental misperception of risk. He noted that a child was 11 times more > > > likely to die by swimming accident at a friend's house with a pool, than > > > by > > > shooting accident at a friend's house with a gun, and yet parents as a > > > generality never restricted play due to the presence of a pool, but would > > > restrict play due to the presence of a gun. > > > Statistically, I am far more likely to kill you with my: > > > > car > > > knife > > > baseball bat or other blunt trauma intrument > > > alcohol > > > > than with my gun, yet your perception of personal risk is so skewed that > > > you literally feel your freedom is impinged upon merely by my possession > > > of > > > this tool. That's a psychological phenomenon that is really irrelevant to > > > the greater conversation, and which probably deserves a thread unto its > > > own. > > > > On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Ian Pollard <[email protected]>wrote: > > > >> Your posession of a firearm makes me less safe. Not being murdered or > > >> hurt > > >> is a pretty fundamental freedom; can we agree on that much? Now, am I > > >> more > > >> likely to be a victim of gun crime in a country with lots of guns or a > > >> country with very few? > > > >> (First person to mention Switzerland gets bitch-slapped.) > > > >> Ian- Hide quoted text - > > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
