[141214] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: (OT) Firearms Was: UN declares Internet access a "human right"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Owen DeLong)
Mon Jun 6 13:25:25 2011
From: Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com>
In-Reply-To: <51A5D7AA-F758-4AD8-97F6-CB0F46490858@humancapitaldev.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 10:21:35 -0700
To: Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav@humancapitaldev.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Jun 6, 2011, at 7:31 AM, Daniel Seagraves wrote:
>=20
> On Jun 6, 2011, at 8:41 AM, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
>=20
>> Nice try, but the human right you just made a case for is "the right =
to rid
>> yourself of criminals and despots". A "fundamental right" for =
citizens to have
>> firearms does *not* automatically follow. Yes, despots usually need =
to be
>> removed by force. What Ghandi showed was that the force didn't have =
to be
>> military - there are other types of force that work well too...
>=20
> I believe that as a law-abiding citizen, I should have the right to be =
at least as well-armed as the average criminal. If the average criminal =
has access to firearms, then I should have that option as well. I should =
not be forced into a disadvantage against criminals by virtue of my =
compliance with the law. Once law enforcement is effective enough to =
prevent the average criminal from having access to firearms, then the =
law-abiding population can be compelled to disarm. This stance can =
result in an escalation scenario in which criminals strive to remain =
better-armed than their intended victims, but the job of law enforcement =
is to prevent them from being successful.
>=20
I take it a step further. I believe that in order to preserve the =
ability of the people to defend themselves from the possibility of =
tyranny, the people must be allowed to possess any level of hardware =
allowed to the government.
While your statement above sounds wonderfully utopian, the reality is =
that unless the citizens can take up arms against the government, the =
government can, over time, become criminal. A disarmed populace has no =
ability to protect itself from such a government.
> At present, the average criminal in my area does not have firearms, =
and so I do not own one. Gun crime is on the increase, however, so this =
situation may change.
>=20
In my area, most of the gun murders are committed by police officers. I =
live in San Jose, California.
Owen
