From: kmitchel@netcom.com (Kenneth C. Mitchell) Subject: Re: Pro-GUN CONTROL FAQ 1.5!!! Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 03:48:44 GMT Alan L. Cassel (alcassel@crl.com) wrote: : The gun lobby argues that states that have tried gun control laws have : found them not to work. Perhaps this is because nearby states haven't : adopted the same laws, and states cannot police their own borders. So why : isn't the answer to make the whole country an "island" by adopting gun : control everywhere? Your facile evasion fails to explain why states that have "lax" gun control laws see LOW crimer rates as compared to their strict neighbors. If the availability of guns in Virginia is what's driving up D.C.'s crime rate, why don't Virgina guns drive up VIRGINIA'S crime rates? Why should criminals cross the Potomac? Could be that the pickings are easier where the law-abiding citizens are diarmed! : : : >FACT: Every day four people die from accidental (just accidents) firing of : : : > guns. A tool used primarily to kill. A tool to send a speeding : : : > bullet through someone. : : FACT: Every day, 250 people die from accidental (just accidents) use of : : automobiles. A tool used primarily to propel someone at very high : : velocity in a steel-and-glass monstrosity weighing over a ton. : Yes, but to use an automobile requires a license, which can be forfeited : for a number of reasons. Yet few people complain about having to get a : drivers' license, even though the right to travel in this country has been : found to be at least as fundamental from a Constitutional basis as the : right to own guns, if not more so. : I would not object to more strenuous licensing restrictions on the : granting and even the renewal of drivers' licenses. I suspect most people : would agree with this view. So why not license guns and/or gun owners the : same way we do cars and drivers? This SOUNDS like a great argument, but you don't mean it - gun controllers never do. I like it just fine, but let's see what you're advocating. 1. I don't need a driver's license to buy a car, or to operate it on private property. I only need a driver's license to operate my car in public. 2. Driver's licenses are granted based on fixed, objective criteria. I do not have to prove to the Sheriff that I need a car. If I haven't violated any laws, renewal is cheap and by mail. 3. I don't lose my driver's license when I move to a different county. 4. My driver's license is valid in every state in the country. 5. States don't ban high-performance cars; I just have to pay higher insurance premiums. License firarms the same way? SURE! IN A SECOND! That would give me a national CCW permit, fixed criteria for CCW issuance, and elimination of nearly all state firearms laws. Be careful what you ask for; you may get it. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kenneth Mitchell |"Liberalism as the answer to rising crime has been applied 8037 Stone Cyn Cir |in both of the great democracies (Great Britain and the Citrus Heights, CA |United States) now for the best part of half of a century. 95610 |It has been tested to destruction. It has failed 916-449-9152 vm |everywhere, overwhelmingly and manifestly - except in one 916-729-0966 fax |region; the minds of its advocates. For them, liberalism kmitchel@netcom.com|is a religion, an article of faith, born of conviction and "finger" for PGP |not susceptible to proof or disproof." public key. | Paul Johnson, WSJ 1/4/94 ----------------------------Don't Tread On Me -------------------------------