Re: Guns'n stuff
Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@geocities.com)
Wed, 05 May 1999 15:05:58 +1000
> Jim says of Switzerland's armed citizenry:
> "I think that's actually a safer system than the one we have in America.
> At least everyone is trained and aware of the responsibility and the
> danger."
Surely you're not advocating national service. We had that banality thrust
on us in Australia in the postwar years, not to mention compulsory
conscription during Vietnam based on a birthday lottery (my Dad was lucky.
My boyfriend's Dad wasn't). The thing that troubles me most is a) forcing
anyone to be militaristic and b) the belief that this is a good way to be.
It's been quite a while since I've read something so sickening as the idea
of teaching a toddler how to use a deadly weapon. This is as in Australia
recently, when we concede that legally a child is not aware of the
difference between good and bad until he is 14 years old when a ten year
old who drowned a six year old boy was let off free.
No one has the right to take another life, and the idea of placing this
idea in a child's mind by handing him a weapon of destruction is wholly and
entirely abhorrent.
Despite how responsible anyone is about a gun, despite how well they know
how to use it, 75% of guns owned by civilians will kill, when they kill, a
member of the owners own family rather than a bandit.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
>
> In the aftermath of Littleton, I've repeatedly heard gun-rights advocates
> call for better gun training. I must admit, at first I had some
difficulty
> making any sense of this position, but having pondered the matter for a
> while, I'm beginning to see the light. The argument, as I understand it,
> rests on 3 core tenets:
>
> 1) Though the average American sees scores of people shot to death each
year
> in movies and on TV, and he learns of countless gun-inflicted deaths and
> maiming in the news, and he can likely recite Dirty Harry's "Go ahead,
make
> my day" soliloquy by heart, incredibly, he somehow remains unaware of the
> fact that guns are dangerous.
>
> 2) Massacres like the one at Littleton might be avoided if would-be
> perpetrators were formally trained in the care, handling, and aiming of
> their weapons, as well as better educated about the kind of damage all of
> the different weapons available to them are capable of inflicting. (I
heard
> that one of the Littleton assassins stored his gun with the safety off!)
>
> 3) Given that very young children are the most common victims of
accidental
> shootings, it's really never too early to get your child a gun and teach
him
> or her how to use it. When deciding on the size of the weapon, keep in
mind
> that toddlers grow fast!
>
> Gun fans, please chime in if I've got it all wrong.
>
> Sean