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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Baloo: [QB] I was talking to someone on ICQ and they asked me a question about what I thought good gun control constituted. After I decided not to answer "Keeping all the bullets in the 10-ring" (shooter's joke [IMG]http://flare.solareclipse.net/wink.gif[/IMG]) I gave the following answer. It's pretty long, so bear with me. <blockquote><HR> [Warning: This turned out to be rather long. You might want to cut-n-paste it into an HTML or text document and read it at your leisure. I'm going to post this at the forums, so I'm putting in HTML tags so you can see where it ought to be in italics, etc. I know you are from Canada where gun use is severely restricted and am not suggesting Canada change its laws unless they choose to do so. I am only making my case for the U.S. I am uncertain it would be wise to liberalize gun laws where they are already restrictive -- there is no tradition of gun lore in most places where guns are currently banned, such as well-known and widely-disseminated rules to safely handle them. Sorry I ran on for so long.] <HR width=50%> Good gun control consists on keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. Failing that, it is taking the guns out of their hands and locking them away for a very long time. Project Exile, tested in Richmond, Virginia, proved to immediately cut crime and save lives because every violent felon caught with a gun goes to jail for 5 years, period. [i]Just like the law says they should.[/i] Federal law already has many provisions that, if enforced, would very effectively decrease violent crime. It's one of the reasons I get annoyed when people call for further restrictions on firearms ownership. It isn't the legal owners who are the problem, and the new laws will have no effect on the people who are already using guns criminally. It's [i]already[/i] illegal for them to procure guns for the purpose of using them in the performance of a criminal act, it's illegal for them to [i]have[/i] guns when they do commit a crime, whether the guns are used or not, and it's illegal to use a gun to commit a crime. Banning all guns because some guns are used by criminals is morally equivalent to placing all newspapers under federal censorship because some information that is printed may incite civil disorder. It's happened before -- remember the riots in L.A. when Rodney King's police abusers were not convicted? Should the government examine and approve all use of any potentially dangerous substance on a case-by-case basis? How about household cleaners? You might decide to poison someone with that box of D-Con Mouse-Pruf. Afer all, it [i]is[/i] poison. Better get a license and prove you can use it responsibly. The federal officer will be by later to ensure you have it properly stored. Beer? Let's see that Alcohol Consumption Certification Course Diploma. Hmmm... Sorry, but you are only certified for red wine (not white) and bourbon whiskey. Denied. By the way, you're under arrest for attempting to purchase beer without proper accreditation. Cigarettes? Let's see that prescription. Good. Everything's in order. Proceed. Hope you don't mind the mandatory 5-day waiting period. You're completely out of cigarettes and are having a nicotine fit? Too bad. See ya in 5 days. How about that fertilizer, "Mr. Farmer" (if that's your real name). Sure, it can be used to make your crops grow, but the same exact substance was used as a component in the bomb used to destroy the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Better show us a license. Better yet, get a federally-licensed fertilizer-applier to spray your farm. Sure it costs more and you don't make enough to pay for such things and still feed your family, but if it saves the life of even one child... <HR></blockquote> [/QB][/QUOTE]
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