[876] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: Guns Freely Available to Criminals
hga@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (hga@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Tue Oct 3 00:09:32 1989
My, are you (redskin) a source of misinformation (probably disinformation).
The Maine court decision you refered to has absolutely nothing to do
with people convicted of violent crimes. It has to do with a particular
individual who was convicted of a non-violent crime, and the judge said
that that crime had nothing to do the apropriateness of his owning a
gun. And, anyway, under Federal law all felons are forbidden firearms
ownership. Now, don't you feel safer?
If you do, you aren't being very wise. If you think any of these laws
have a wit of influence on whether a violent criminal wants or is able
to get a gun, you're sadly mistaken. Studies of criminals show that
something like 85% of their firearms are procured illegally. The
20,000 existing gun laws in this are no more or less effective than
the laws against drugs, or the Prohibition against the deamon rum.
Their only major effect seems to be the disarming of the law abiding
citizen, and the turning of many otherwise law-abiding citizens in to
criminals because they have the temerity to insure their and their
families' saftey.
