[rescue] Octane R10K/175 CPU module available

[Phil Stracchino]

On Sun, Dec 07, 2003 at 09:56:01PM +0000, Mike Meredith wrote:
> Looking at it from an entirely theoretical viewpoint, making guns (or
> certain catagories of guns) illegal and "changing things" in the US
> would be very difficuly but not impossible. It would take a long time
> (several generations?) and would have to be tackled in small bites, but
> it could be done ...

Theoretical?

> * Restrict gun ownership to those who are "of age", don't have criminal
>   records, don't have mental health problem. Over time make the 
>   restrictions more severe.
> 
> * Restrict where guns can be bought. Enforce a cooling off period so
>   you can't buy one and immediately take it away. Again increase the
>   restrictions over time to make it more inconvenient to get a gun.
> 
> * Catagorise guns and ban certain kinds ("only a terrorist would want
>   a heavy fully-automatic gun").

The gun control lobby is already trying all of these and more.  They
also picked up on a few tricks you missed.  One-gun-a-month limits. 
Minimum size limits.  Maximum size limits.  Magazine capacity limits. 
Declaring certain ammunition calibers "evil".  Declaring specific gun
features "evil".  Per-bullet ammunition taxes.  Per-bullet *SERIAL
NUMBERS*, fer crissake.  Permits, taxes, more permits, more taxes.  One
of the latest gambits (which so far seems to be failing) is product
liability lawsuits against firearms manufacturers on the grounds that
they should know criminals will use them to commit crimes.  (So far,
thankfully, courts are sanely ruling that manufacturers cannot be held
responsible for unlawful misuse of properly manufactured, legally sold
products.)

All this in the name of fighting crime, and all of it in total defiance
of evidence showing that the stricter they make the gun control laws in
particular cities and states, the worse the crime rates get, while oddly
enough the crime in the areas without onerous gun-control laws stays
low.

Violent criminals generally aren't rocket scientists, but they're bright
enough to prefer unarmed victims, as I believe the UK is now discovering.


-- 
 .*********  Fight Back!  It may not be just YOUR life at risk.  *********.
 : phil stracchino : unix ronin : renaissance man : mystic zen biker geek :
 :  alaric at caerllewys.net : alaric-ruthven at earthlink.net : phil at latt.net  :
 :   2000 CBR929RR, 1991 VFR750F3 (foully murdered), 1986 VF500F (sold)   :
 :    Linux Now!   ...Because friends don't let friends use Microsoft.    :