Text 49701, 66 rader
Skriven 2007-04-20 10:02:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 49674 av Jeff Smith (1:14/0)
Ärende: Shootings
=================
Hello Jeff!

On Thursday April 19 2007 14:08, you wrote to me:

 MV>>>> As I see it the basic problem is indeed the mindset. The mindset
 MV>>>> that tells people that violence is a quick solution for every
 MV>>>> problem.

 JS>>>      I think it is because it is so easy to respond to a problem
 JS>>> by hitting, stabbing, or shooting, etc. instead of taking the
 JS>>> time to understand and communicate.

 MV>> A mindset that appears o be widely spread in the USA.

 JS> A mindset that is unfortunately too common to a number of counties.

It is not limited to the USA, but AFAIK, the USA is the only country where it
is reflected in the constitution.

 JS> I usually go hunting several times a year and there are some years
 JS> when I never fire a shot. I try to be a one shot, one kill type of
 JS> hunter. And will avoid shooting at all unless I am sure of the shot
 JS> and more importantly what is beyond the shot.

But when the conditions are right, you shoot nevertheless.

 JS>  There are those that primaraly just target shoot.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. Target shooting is practising. Practising for what?
Ask yourself that question.

 JS>      Using a gun is not the problem. It is how and against what/whom
 JS> that is the problem.

It is the people that say that guns are not the problem, that are the problem.
But you can't see that because you are one of them.

 MV>> As i see it, there is a direct relation between desire to own
 MV>> guns and the mindset that leads to the use of them. The mindset
 MV>> that make people use guns is the *same* mindset that makes them
 MV>> want to have them.

 JS>      Possible? Yes. Althought not as probable as you seem to suggest.
 JS> I could want and choose to have a gun and have that mindset. But I
 JS> would not necessarily need to have the mindset to want to use a gun in
 JS> the context of shooting/killing someone else. Except in the case of
 JS> defending the life of my family. The thought of using a gun to attack
 JS> or inact revenge against someone would never occur to me.

All just talk. Nobody who buys a gun openly claims to intent to use it for
killing people. It is always for "defence".

Yet at the beginning of this week 32 people were killed by a lunatic with a
gun. It did not happen here, where guns are extremely restricted, it happened
in the USA where every citizen has the constitutional right to own fire arms.

And it is people like you that defend that right.

And you refuse to see that without giving up that right, there will be
"accidents" like the one at Virginia Tech. THAT is the problem.


Cheers, Michiel

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