Re: Not always joking, it seems

In message <Xns9A48CF4E9C76Dgenewardsmithsbcglob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Gene 
Ward Smith <gene@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes
>"Karl Johanson" <karljohanson@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
>news:QJsuj.62031$FA.27634@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>>> I believe Terry pointed out that under the existing
>Florida law, most
>>> or those cl***** would not be issued a permit.
>>
>> And those who sup****t those laws are for "gun control".
>I've never met
>> anyone who isn't pro gun control, they just have differing
>standards as
>> to what the specific restrictions sould be.
>
>It hardly matters, since according to Terry we know with 100%
>certainty that anyone who uses a gun would have used another
>weapon had a gun not been available. Anyone who claims
>differently is a liar. If we somehow kept people from
>bringing guns to high schools and college campuses, we would
>have people slaughtering students by the score using propane
>tanks.
>

I often wonder when I see things like this incident; you have one man 
with a gun, and several hundred people without one. How come none of 
them tried throwing things at him? Ru****ng the stage? Turning the fire 
hose on him? Try something like that some places and someone would shout 
"Stone the infidel!" and you'd be disarmed in thirty seconds and dead a 
little later.

My guess, for what it's worth, is that it's cultural conditioning. If 
you live in a culture where everyone is told that guns are all powerful 
(which seems to be the main argument of the "everyone should carry guns" 
faction here) and a lunatic with a gun is shooting at you, your first 
thought is not "I will get out my trusty .357 magnum and blow his tiny 
brains out," even if you happen to be carrying a gun - it's "oh **** oh 
**** I'm going to be killed, gotta hide!" I forget how many shots were 
allegedly fired per person hit during WW2, but it was in the hundreds - 
mostly because nearly everyone involved was too scared to shoot 
straight.

I should add that I have no reason to believe that I am free of this 
conditioning, or would be doing anything other than hiding if it 
happened to me. But I suspect that many of those who claim otherwise are 
deluding themselves.

Apologies if you're seeing this as email as well as a followup to the 
original post - I hit the wrong button when I tried to reply earlier.
-- 
Marcus L. Rowland             http://www.forgottenfutures.com/
LJ:ffutures     http://homepage.ntlworld.com/forgottenfutures/
   Forgotten Futures - The Scientific Romance Role Playing Game
   Diana: Warrior Princess  &   Elvis: The Legendary Tours
   The Original Flatland Role Playing Game