Oh, and Benny, what Robohobo just said jogged my memory re. your soup comment. There was actually a very famous case in Japan in the ’90s in which a woman killed a bunch of people by poisoning the curry served at a public event. You just never know how those weirdos are going to strike.

NRA Article

And glad to see you read The Mrs. Her other half ain’t bad either. Bit cranky tho’.

Benny – “But strange how it’s always guns. Can you remember the last time a psychopathic loner blew up his classroom with a homemade bomb? Or poisoned the soup? They are always obsessed with guns.”

Benny, dude, what cave you been living in? Iraq? Heard of it? The jihadis now spice their car bombs with chlorine gas! The last time that was done is WWI!

Last I checked it is pretty much proven by stats that when the weapons are confiscated the crime rate rockets. Gun crime does not go down, it goes up. [If the guns are illegal then of course the criminals will not have them, right?]

And you cannot legislate for crazy.

The Hobo

Speaking of whom, Connie, it never ceases to amaze me how many people, when confronted with the question of what good, honest citizens should do if their government turns unconscionably corrupt and adversarial, furrow their brow for several beats and say, “Well, you could call for elections, or I guess there would need to be a coup from within the government.” They honestly don’t seem to believe that sovereignty ultimately lies with the people.

Maybe you’re just fun to wrestle with

Now THAT would be hot, if you don’t mind my saying. I’ll give you my address. Atlanta is not a real expensive trip!

But yeah, I guess I do tend to link you when I have something to argue about. Maybe you’re just fun to wrestle with.

There are a lot of reasons it’s not as simple as that. Every citizen of the U.S. knows that our country wouldn’t exist as it does if the then-colonists hadn’t been willing to take up arms against an unjust government. It’s in our historical memory and very sense of national identity.

I don’t think anyone today believes either federal or local governments are oppressing their citizens in any direct, principled way; but the potential for abuse of force on the part of the government is never far from our consciousness, either. (Think Waco, Ruby Ridge, or the current spate of no-knock raids connected with the War on Drugs.)

Another complicated aspect of the issue of “gun culture” is the way trends in crime developed after World War II. Violent crime began to mushroom in the 1950s. (The increase was publicized in the early ’60s because the crunched numbers weren’t available until they were a year or two out of date.) Choose just about anything happening in American society then, and you can find a researcher somewhere who argues it was a major factor in the increase in the crime rates. Suburbanization contributed by making house ownership available to people of modest incomes outside urban areas–neighborhoods with high rates of property ownership by residents tend to have less crime. The police presence in high-crime areas went down. Changes in family structure had an effect somehow, though no one can agree how.

The result is that even law-abiding citizens who don’t live in remote mountain cabins have had it impressed upon them time and again that the authorities cannot necessarily come to their aid in time to guarantee safety for them or their property. Gun crime is only a component of that.

I do think the way a lot of spree killers glorify guns is suggestive. A gun allows you to project deadly force several feet beyond yourself, which must feel exhilarating if you feel small and impotent as a human being. Interestingly, Japan has traditionally romanticized the sword, and many of the country’s most climactic crimes have involved stabbings or slicings.

Having a much lower number of guns in a society not only reduces the rate of opportunistic gun crimes (as someone already said), and presents barriers to premeditated gun crime, but most likely inculcates a different attitude towards guns.

That Americans need guns to protect themselves from their government is a paranoid fallacy. Americans need guns to protect themselves from other Americans. Ones with guns.

That said, the Cho case has more to do with an angry, mentally-unstable young man wanting revenge on people. Guns were just the means to an end.

But strange how it’s always guns. Can you remember the last time a psychopathic loner blew up his classroom with a homemade bomb? Or poisoned the soup? They are always obsessed with guns.