[CLUE-Talk] Bowling for Columbine

[grant]

I own 2 handguns and one laptop.  Quite truthfully, I could cause more
hate, discontent, and death with the laptop.  With the handgun, I would
have to be personally involved with each incident, and each could affect
only a few people at best.  I would also be ver obvious, and law
enforcement would notice a lot.  How many people could I kill by crashing
the Chicago power grid in January?  The point being that these are both
inanimate objects, both are therefore without any morality of their own.
They are both tools.  My handgun came close to saving my life at least
once.  We had the swat team arresting my neighbor.  They felt it necessary
to attempt to shoot him.  Although more than 50 shots were fired (by
police), only one hit him.  If he had eluded them and entered my house,
this could have been a life threatening situation.  I spent the night
sitting on the end of my bed waiting while the swat team tried to drag the
idiot out of his house, and my wife slept, peacefully, knowing that
tonight she would be safe in spite of the fact that there was a psycho
only 150 feet away.

If you want real handgun statistics, look at what happened in Texas when
they made it easy to get a concealed carry permit.  Accidental shootings
went up slightly, but intentional shootings went down dramatically, and
shootings overall went down.  A criminal thinks twice when the victim
might shoot back.

I look at it like a car.  Check their background (you can't get a license
with too many tickets).  Make them take a proficiency test, and let things
go from there.  Safest possible solution.

Also remember.  Making it illegal to own these will not stop criminals.
They are criminals, therefore they have already decided to break the law.
The law will not deter them.  It will only deter those who are law abiding
citizens, and make the more vulnerable to the criminals, who know that
their prey is defenseless.

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