I'm afraid. Very Afraid.

[B5JMS Poster]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: shocklee at Princeton.EDU (Paul D. Shocklee)
Date: 22 May 2000 20:40:29 -0600
Lines: 30

The Zarg (TheZarg at greysector.ezesurf.co.uk) wrote:
: I am currently living in Scotland - but I have applied to study for the
: third year of my Degree course at the University of South Carolina.  Some of
: the posts supporting the right to have guns, and even more so the personal
: anecdotes of people who have stayed over there have chilled me to the
: bone...a couple of people have made jokes about it when I've told them that
: I'm moving over there about having keep my mouth shut or I'll get shot - or
: even saying that I should buy a gun while I'm out there, and I've kind of
: laughed it off...but reading that dicussion, and seeing a recent program on
: gun ownership, has made me seriously reconsider going, and I'm begining to
: think that if I stayed over there I would be living in constant fear.

Hey, Zarg, don't worry about it.  I've been all over this country, from 
Texas to NY to LA, and I've never even seen a gun drawn, except in movies.

I don't own a gun, and most of the people I know don't either.

On the other hand, I do agree with the argument that allowing 
law-abiding citizens to carry weapons helps to protect even those
who are unarmed.

(Okay, technically, we *do* have an old Civil War rifle on our mantel,
but it's just an heirloom.)

--
Paul Shocklee
Graduate Student, Department of Physics, Princeton University
Researcher, Science Institute, Dunhaga 3, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland
Phone: +354-525-4429


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 22 May 2000 21:24:46 -0600
Lines: 38

>I do agree with the argument that allowing 
>law-abiding citizens to carry weapons helps to protect even those
>who are unarmed.

And there I have never disagreed.  My sense has always been that a citizen
should undergo at least as much training to own a gun as s/he undergoes to own
and use a car.  Proper training in safety, useage, storage and so on.

To the person afraid of coming here due to the violence issue...if you come
alone, you're going to be okay, because something like 4 out of 5 gun related
incidents happen between people who *know* each other (and in many cases are
married to or involved with one another).

People seem to go into this knee-jerk reaction whenver anyone starts saying
things like the stuff two paragraphs up, and make it into a threat to take away
one's gun.  It's simply a statement that steps can and should be taken to make
sure the person who *buys* one knows how to use it.

A car exists for many purposes, and can if misused result in someone's death.

A handgun exists for only one purpose: to shoot another human being.

Shouldn't the standard for ownership of the latter be at *least* as reasonable
and thorough as the standard for the first?

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
(all message content (c) 2000 by
synthetic worlds, ltd., permission
to reprint specifically denied to
SFX Magazine)




-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Replies to messages go to the list maintainer,
-*** <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>.  If you want to reply elsewhere, adjust
-*** the "To" field.  See http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/b5jms/ for all
-*** other information about this list.