From: chris@MorningStar.Com (Chris Miller)
Subject: Re: The 'pill' for Deer = No Hunting
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In article <1993Apr14.182610.2330@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu> jrm@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu writes:
>In article <1993Apr14.120958.11363@synapse.bms.com>, hambidge@bms.com writes:
>> 
>> The Second Amendment is about sovereignty, not sporting goods.
>
>	Perfectly correct, but it won't make any difference.

I agree.  Sad, but true.

>
>> Self defense is a valid reason for RKBA.
>
>	The vast majority get through life without ever having to
>	own, use or display a firearm. Besides, there are other
>	means of self-protection which can be just as effective
>	as firearms. 

Please name one.

>
>> Freedoms and rights are not dependent on public opinion, necessity, or
>> scientific scrutiny.
>
>	New to this planet ? EVERYTHING is dependent on either public
>	or political opinion, usually political. To imagine that
>	inalienable 'rights' are somehow wired into the vast cold
>	cosmos is purest egotism and a dangerous delusion.
>

.... Upon which our Bill of Rights is based.  Some delusion.

>> No arguments against RKBA can withstand scientific scrutiny.
>
>	They don't have to. Like so many other things, the issue
>	is one of -perception- rather than boring statistics.
>	Every time some young innocent is gunned-down in a drive
>	by, every time some kid is murdered for a jacket, every
>	time a store clerk is executed for three dollars in change,
>	every time some moron kills his wife because she took the
>	last beer from the fridge, every time someone hears a 'bang'
>	in the night .... the RKBA dies. The stats are not all *that*
>	clearly behind firearms - the protection factor does not
>	strongly outweigh the mindless mayhem factor. Given society
>	as we now experience it - it seems safer to get rid of
>	as many guns as possible. That may be an error, but enough
>	active voters believe in that course. 
>

If this were not true in practice, then certain unethical politicians would
not be passing gun control laws.  Politicians are generally whores to public
opinion.  This does NOT mean the the public is either well informed or correct.
As for the stats,  anyone can support anything with the right stats.  The 
"right" stats, from what I've seen, are sometimes even used to support
conflicting sides of the same issue.


>> How do you intend to 'silence' RKBA supporters?
>
>	Talk all you want. Talk about the "good old days" when
>	you used to own firearms. After a while, such talk will
>	take on the character of war stories ... and no one will
>	be very interested anymore.
>

Used to own firearms? While armed insurrection, as the FF's of the Const. 
may have envisioned seems to me a somewhat fanatical approach to avoiding this,
Political protest is still an option at this point.  I agree that it's 
argueably not enough and/or too late.  If all else fails, there's always
PVC pipe and cosmoline.

--

Chris Miller
chris@MorningStar.Com

My opinions are my own (obviously), and by definition do not reflect the
opinions of anyone else...


