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! Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10701