"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:47:22 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:



"Awash with guns" indeed. What poppycock -- and such persistent
poppycock it seems to be!

Well, if not "awash," what the hell do you call a society of 300 million
people and 250 million guns? Askew? g

Not "awash" if their existance isn't evident in daily life.

We're "awash" in automobiles. One can't go outside the house without
seeing dozens to thousands of 'em. How many guns do you see each day?
How many do or did your children see aside from on TV?

OK, if "awash" has to be visibly awash, then we're not awash. We're
something like awash, only you can't see it. They're like underwear or
nipples.

Which is an interesting point: We have more than *twice* as many nipples as
guns. However, few of them should be seen in public. d8-)


Yeah, we take care of them once they've shot somebody. Otherwise, your
post
shall go unmolested by my wisecracks. d8-)

We don't always take care of them once they've shot somebody.

I could ask something about *when* we're supposed to do something about
them, then, but I'll restrain myself. My point was that we don't even *try*
to do anything about it until they've shot somebody. That is, many gun
owners prefer it that way, although various gun controls, particularly
background checks, make at least a feeble attempt to do something about it.

Of course, the barn doors are still open in terms of private sales and gun
shows. Did you ever see the stats on guns used in crime, and where they come
from? In the large majority of cases their last legal or apparently legal
transaction was a private sale.

If we
did there would be no repeat offenders.

How many cops do you think we'd need to reach a very high percentage of
arrests for those cases? How many do you want to see when you walk to the
corner store?

In any case, how many folks
have you personally known that have ever been shot at, aside from
military or law enforcement?

I think the answer is one, although maybe some of them aren't talking.

How about folks injured or killed by
other causes?

Lots. Now, what is the point of this? If it's to say the problem is
statistically a small one, we agree. If it's to say that it doesn't matter,
we don't agree. Because the larger issue is not the relative number of
deaths or injuries. It's *how* they occur. That's why it's a political issue
in the first place.

--
Ed Huntress