[thechat] Snowball fight turns... umm... I don't even know howto express it...

[Martin Burns]

On Tue, 25 Feb 2003, Chris Marsh wrote:

> > > Whilst I'm with you thus far...
> > >
> > > > And people wonder why I'm for gun control. Good god, sometimes
> > >
> > > ...and gun control reduces gun crime?
> >
> > Well, it sure as hell doesn't *increase* gun crime, does it?
>
> Why would you make that assumption? Place a product on the black market,
> it's price drops.

As we've seen by the spectacular drop in the price of drugs... oh, hang
on...

> Remember, gun "control" only has any effect on "legitimate" firearms.
> Criminals are not noted for their use of vehicles *or* guns registered
> legitimately to themselves.

The name 'Thomas Hamilton' mean anything to you? Google it together with
'Dunblane' and you'll find the direct cause of the handgun ban.

Further, slow the supply into the legal market and you don't have a pool
of weapons that can jump over into the criminal one.

> > > Um, how does that colossal leap of
> > > faith work? We have "gun control" in the UK. We also appear to have
> > > increasing gun crime.
> >
> > Duff logic.  We also have rising sea temperatures and a near-
> > total absence of the white-coloured dogshit in the streets
> > which used to be there when we were kids.  Neither of those
> > are causing gun crime either.  I hope.
>
> The previous post implied that gun-control would solve gun crime. I was
> merely stating facts.

> Fact number 1) The UK implemented "gun control" some time ago.
> Fact number 2) The UK has an escalating firearms problem.

Fact number 3) You don't have a control against which to benchmark.

> But by disarming the population one is giving Bad Men a near
> 100% chance that a citizen will be unarmed.

It's near enough that anyway. And from memory, the majority of gun crime
(ie use of guns) tends to be between armed parties, with high probability
of non-combatants getting in the way. More guns in environment=increased
probability of this, *particularly* if some of those using guns in defence
against Bad Men aren't too experienced.

Cheers
Martin
--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie