Text 49703, 69 rader
Skriven 2007-04-20 10:53:00 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 49687 av Jeff Smith (1:14/0)
Ärende: Shootings
=================
Hello Jeff!

On Thursday April 19 2007 18:07, you wrote to me:

 JS>>> Because holding or owning a gun should not be a sign or indication
 JS>>> of being a bad guy. I don't consider myself to be THAT bad of a guy
 JS>>> yet I own a dozen or so guns including three handguns.

 MV>> And this is exactly what the problem is. You believe yourself to
 MV>> be a good guy, so in your mindset it is perfectly all right for
 MV>> *you* to have guns.

 JS>      Again, people having guns is not the problem.

So if this Korean student did not have guns, he would just have killed those 32
people with his bare hands?

 JS> If I choose to have guns I must also accept the responsibility for the
 JS> safe and proper use of those guns.

There is no "safe" use for a gun. The only safe gun is a gun plunging into the
melting pot of a steel mill.

 JS> The problem is that some people look at having a gun as as status
 JS> symbol or a mine is bigger than yours thing or as Björn mentioned a
 JS> macho thing.

So if that is the problem why give them what they want? Ban guns and they can
no longer use their guns as a status symbol.

 MV>> But then how many people really consider themselves to be the bad
 MV>> guys?...

 JS>      Rather few I would imagine. What determines who are the bad guys
 JS> I would think is what the end result is of someone having a gun.

The usual end result is someone with a smoking gun in his hand standing over
the body of someone with a smoking gun lying next to him. You are saying that
the guy standing automatically is the good guy?

 BF>>>> Doesn't it simplify matters for the police if they know that
 BF>>>> anyone holding a piece is a bad guy?

 JS>>>     But that often times isn't the case.

 MV>> It *would* be the case if guns were outlawed.

 JS>       Outlawing guns isn't the answer. The guns are not the problem.
 JS> The people are the problem.

Yes, it is people that are the problem. People who say guns are not the
problem.

If you really would be the responsible person you claim to be, you would take
off your blinders and admit that the fact that it is so dammed easy to get a
gun in the US *is* the problem. When there are guns, they will be used to kill
people, and when guns are easy to get there will be more guns and when there
are more guns, more people will be killed by guns. If you were the responsible
person you claim to be, you would face that reality instead of denying it.

If you really were a responsible person you would stop inventing excuses, give
up your guns and start working towords ending the situation where everyone can
legally have them.


Cheers, Michiel

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