News

**Disturbed nli** Not the real one! User ID: 1 07-20-2012 05:04 PM

Quote: “Guns don’t kill people — criminals do.” That’s a powerful slogan, much more powerful than its alternate version: “Guns don’t kill people—people kill people.” But this second version, though less effective, is much nearer to the whole truth. Although accurate statistics are hard to come by, and even harder to interpret, it seems indisputable that large numbers of people, not just criminals, kill, with a handgun, other people. Scarcely a day goes by without a newspaper in any large city reporting that a child has found a gun, kept by the child’s parents for self protection, and has, in playing with this new-found toy, killed himself or a playmate. Or we read of a storekeeper, trying to protect himself during a robbery, who inadvertently shoots an innocent customer. These killers are not, in any reasonable sense of the word, criminals. They are just people who happen to kill people. No wonder the gun lobby prefers the first version of the slogan, “Guns don’t kill people—criminals do.” This version suggests that the only problem is criminals, not you or me, or our children, and certainly not the members of the National Rifle Association.

Those of us who want strict control of handguns — for me that means the outlawing of handguns, except to the police and related service units — have not been able to come up with a slogan equal in power to “Guns don’t kill people—criminals do.” The best we have been able to come up with is a mildly amusing bumper sticker showing a teddy bear, with the words “Defend your right to arm bears.” Humor can be a powerful weapon (even in writing on behalf of gun control, one slips into using the imagery of force), and our playful bumper sticker somehow deflates the self-righteousness of the gun lobby, but doesn’t equal the power (again the imagery of force) of “Guns don’t kill people — criminals do.” For one thing, the effective alliteration of “criminals” and “kill” binds the two words, making everything so terribly simple. Criminals kill; when there are no criminals, there will be no deaths from guns.

But this notion won’t do. Despite the uncertainty of some statistical evidence, everyone knows, or should know, that only about 30 percent of murders are committed by robbers or rapists (Kates, 1 978). For the most part the victims of handguns know their assailants well. These victims are women killed by jealous husbands, or they are the women’s lovers; or they are drinking buddies who get into a violent argument; or they are innocent people who get shot by disgruntled (and probably demented) employees or fellow workers who have (or imagine) a grudge. Or they are, as I’ve already said, bystanders at a robbery, killed by a storekeeper. Or they are children playing with their father’s gun.

http://faculty.mdc.edu/dmcguirk/ENC2106/desuka.htm

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 75417 07-20-2012 05:06 PM

Good luck with that.

**Disturbed nli** Not the real one! User ID: 1 07-20-2012 05:08 PM

okay there greenberg..

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 106826 07-20-2012 05:09 PM

No thanks. I like mine too much.

**Twatwaffle** lop guest User ID: 109578 07-20-2012 05:11 PM

Molon labe.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 91202 07-20-2012 05:11 PM

To easy for some to pull a trigger in the heat of the moment....

That's where firearm discipline comes in.....

This is the true problem.....

**JF Priest** · **JF Priest** Subscriber User ID: 47416 07-20-2012 05:18 PM **Posts: 23,872**

**SexualChocolate**

can I take your picture?

[Image: BAEA_500977B1.jpg]

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 102152 07-20-2012 05:27 PM

We must outlaw handguns because that's what hitler did.

The holocaust followed.

**spɹɐʍoɔ snoɯʎuouɐ**

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 84193 07-20-2012 05:42 PM

I certainly looks like they outlawed history book where you live. chuckle

**SexualChocolate**

LoP Guest Wrote:

I certainly looks like they outlawed history book where you live.

probably right before they burned them.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 62396 07-20-2012 05:44 PM

handguns rock......

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 109598 07-20-2012 05:44 PM

PLEASE.....don't you know that Americans will NEVER relinquish their right to own a firearm??? THe NRA is so far up the gov't ass it will never happen.

Same old - its not the gun its the user BS will follow.
Get a grip America....there is NO NEED for handguns other than law enforcement. It will only get worse......

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 62396 07-20-2012 05:45 PM

the bad guys can't wait for gun confiscation. You'll see an explosion of home invasions, especially at night....