X-Message-Number: 10701
From: 
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 13:37:43 EST
Subject: Re: CryoNet #10693 - #10699 (gun control)

  Hello to Thomas Nord! It's always good to hear from the red-coated minions
of the Elector of Saxe (or wherever you bought your royal family, I forget).
Pardon my flippancy, but US and UK people have been having this same argument
for some time now (this is what triggered the little incident at Lexington and
Concord; the King was trying to enforce cannon control).
  Gun control would be a great idea... if there were some way of taking guns
away from the people who use them to commit genocide, i.e. governments. Since
we can't do that, gun control is a terrible idea, IMHO. The high homicide
rates in the US are mainly due to:
1. Drug Prohibition related turf wars and enforcement; we had high murder
rates during alcohol Prohibition, too. The Drug War is a very good reason to
fear living in the US; gun ownership is not. I live in a rural area of the
U.S. Practically everyone owns a gun, but our local murder rates are far lower
than the 'disarmed' Japanese (whose criminal class has guns, but prefers
swords for silence) or the London proles.
2. Our large class of permanent welfare clients, created by laws which take
away welfare payments from people who try to work. This is another huge
problem, but isn't related to guns, lasers, poison gas, clubs or stone axes in
particular.

  At least with guns, fighting can be kept more limited to the combatants; car
bombs or poison gases are much easier to make than guns, and much less
discriminating.
  
  Anyway, the murder rate in the US is quite low if you are not an inner-city
resident. Don't let your fear of vicious Americans stop you from moving here.
Our food is much more likely to kill you; stay away from Ronald MacDonald and
his trans fats!

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