tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post2705696814528880525..comments2024-03-12T22:31:46.500-04:00Comments on What Would Phoebe Do?: "Unstable personalities"Phoebe Maltz Bovyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17996039330841139883noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7146512.post-112200481317633982007-04-20T18:37:00.000-04:002007-04-20T18:37:00.000-04:00I'm having a little bit of a hard time figuring ou...I'm having a little bit of a hard time figuring out your argument.<BR/><BR/>You seem to be saying that it's at least "morally ambiguous" if not an out-and-out rights violation to turn in people on the basis of violence that they write in plays, which are, after all, fiction.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps. <BR/><BR/>But why isn't radical control a rights violation?<BR/><BR/>There are anywhere from 200 million to 260 million guns in America. The vast, vast majority of people who have guns own them legally. They paid several hundred dollars a piece for them. They use them for recreational shooting, hunting, home defense, self-protection on streets, etc.<BR/><BR/>If you wanted to take away their property even though they had acquired it legally and never used it in a harmful or unlawful manner, I hope you can understand why they would be upset. (Although perhaps you could get more people to sign on to a gun confiscation if you promised to pay everyone for doing their duty.) <BR/><BR/>There are places with many guns and few crimes. There are places with few guns and lots of crime.<BR/><BR/>Vermont has <A HREF="http://www.gunowners.org/vtcarry.htm" REL="nofollow">extremely tolerant gun laws</A> and a firearms homicide rate that is <A HREF="http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_hom_tot_num_of_vic_percap-total-number-victims-per-capita" REL="nofollow">about half</A> of that of New Jersey, where the gun laws are some of the strictest in the nation.<BR/><BR/>It's easy to legally get a gun in North Dakota, a safe state. But guns are more-or-less illegal in <A HREF="http://www.affbrainwash.com/genehealy/archives/021992.php" REL="nofollow">Washington DC</A>, which suffers about <A HREF="http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1239,q,547256,mpdcNav_GID,1556.asp" REL="nofollow">200 murders a year</A>, many of them with guns. (Across the river is Arlington County, Virginia, where the guns are plentiful but there are fewer than <A HREF="http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/Police/news/article.asp?ID=429" REL="nofollow">6 murders in a typical year</A>.)<BR/><BR/>Since we can't just wish away the U.S. Constitution, why don't we concentrate on measures that might actually pass?<BR/><BR/>We know that the murderer lied about his mental health history on his background check. Maybe it's time to get a more comprehensive and effective database?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com