The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Interesting discussion about arming police in England.

ajw · April 1, 2002, 11:56 PM

Crash, I think the analogy of drinking and driving contradicts what you are trying to prove. If it is your intention to equate guns with cars and drunk drivers to criminals then is that also to imply that the solution to reduce drunk driving related deaths is to forbid the posession of cars? How can you so readily pass the responsibility off the driver or criminal and onto an inanimate object?

Society has not done away with cars but it has been codified that inebriated people should not drive because it presents a danger to other members of society as well as the driver. It would follow then that we should not do away with firearms, but we should prevent people who are obviously prone to criminal behavior from posessing them.

The desire and ability to take human lives will always be available to the people who seek it whether in the form of a car, baseball bat, or a glass bottle. By blaming the tools you are taking responsibility away from people and their actions. I step behind the wheel of my over powered car every morning, drive to work, and don't kill anyone. When I go to the firing range and run through a couple boxes of ammunition, again, no one gets hurt. How can this be? Because I didn't run anyone over in my car nor shoot anyone with my gun. It is that simple.

It is the most liberal and elitest of ideas to believe that, like the drunk driver "poisoned" with alchohol, people are inherently good and is outside influences that turn them to do wrong. It is then up to the "enlightened people" to protect the common rabble from themselves and the evils that influence them.

Anyway, here's a thought for your statistical evidence gathering. I live in Boston, MA where over the past year some of the most restrictive gun laws in the US went into effect. As you might guess, firearm related deaths dropped significantly. However, stabbings and other deaths from edged instruments more than tripled. The overall number of homicides and assaults actually increased over the previous year.

I hear crime of all sorts is skyrocketing in the UK....

April 1, 2002, 11:56 PM	#19
ajw Member Join Date: September 11, 2000 Posts: 40	Crash, I think the analogy of drinking and driving contradicts what you are trying to prove. If it is your intention to equate guns with cars and drunk drivers to criminals then is that also to imply that the solution to reduce drunk driving related deaths is to forbid the posession of cars? How can you so readily pass the responsibility off the driver or criminal and onto an inanimate object? Society has not done away with cars but it has been codified that inebriated people should not drive because it presents a danger to other members of society as well as the driver. It would follow then that we should not do away with firearms, but we should prevent people who are obviously prone to criminal behavior from posessing them. The desire and ability to take human lives will always be available to the people who seek it whether in the form of a car, baseball bat, or a glass bottle. By blaming the tools you are taking responsibility away from people and their actions. I step behind the wheel of my over powered car every morning, drive to work, and don't kill anyone. When I go to the firing range and run through a couple boxes of ammunition, again, no one gets hurt. How can this be? Because I didn't run anyone over in my car nor shoot anyone with my gun. It is that simple. It is the most liberal and elitest of ideas to believe that, like the drunk driver "poisoned" with alchohol, people are inherently good and is outside influences that turn them to do wrong. It is then up to the "enlightened people" to protect the common rabble from themselves and the evils that influence them. Anyway, here's a thought for your statistical evidence gathering. I live in Boston, MA where over the past year some of the most restrictive gun laws in the US went into effect. As you might guess, firearm related deaths dropped significantly. However, stabbings and other deaths from edged instruments more than tripled. The overall number of homicides and assaults actually increased over the previous year. I hear crime of all sorts is skyrocketing in the UK....