[geeks] Dos and similar games

[Michael Parson]

On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 01:31:03PM -0500, Mike Hebel wrote:
> Thus spake Michael Parson:

<snip>

>> The reason you carry concealed is so no one knows you are carrying.
>>
>> If you can't have a poker face, you shouldn't carry, there's just too
>> much responsibility involved in being armed.
>
> About the responsibility I will agree however I have two things on my
> mind after reading some of this thread and similar ones elsewhere:
>
> 1) We should allow open carrying of anything that is not a range
> weapon.  Period.  It would make personal conflicts and the people
> involved much more responsible for their actions.  Crime would become
> less, IMHO, because someone would always have a weapon on them if
> they choose and thus would no longer be an easy target.  Criminals
> having guns?  Sure they will!  But what criminal is going to openly
> mow someone down unless they have to?  The unknown rewards of the
> attack would fall below the potential risk.  There would obviously be
> exceptions but I think those would be rare.  This along with nasty
> penalties for gun related crime - think pedo-level prosecution - would
> probably discourage random gun violence.

If everyone that carries carries openly then a would-be criminal can
scan a room/area/whatever and make a quick judgement call on if they
want to go forward.  But if you know that statistically, 15% of the
population carries (concealed), and you can't tell who in the room
might have a gun under their belt, it makes that decision harder, and a
smart criminal (yeah, there are a few out there) would choose an easier
target.

Which is why I don't like places that don't let you carry, just cuz they
are afraid of those scary guns.  I don't see them as safe places, I see
them as target-rich environments for criminals who now know they have an
un-armed set of potential victims.  Criminals don't obey the laws, some
people just can't seem to get that through their think skulls.

> 2) Airplanes:  Issue pepper spray to _every_ adult on the plane then
> lock the cockpit. What's the worst that could happen?  You end up with
> a bunch of people with pepper in their eyes and a plane landed early.
> If the hijacker manages to smuggle and detonate a bomb then a gun
> wouldn't have helped you anyway.

Why not just hook pepper into the a/c system so it can be kicked off
from the cockpit (which would be on a seperate/filtered system)?

That was sarcasm.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org