[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Mad SCO Disease

[Russell Senior]

I come at this whole issue from what seems like a unique perspective.

I grew up in a house with guns.  I am not afraid of them.  I learned
to shoot proficiently.  I have shot at small fury animals and turned
portions of them into a fine mist.  When I was in high school, I
repeatedly took riflery in PE and fired live ammunition in the school
range under the auditorium.  I own a gun, though it is currently in
someone else's care.  I understand that, in some contexts, guns have
utility.  I understand that someone in a rural environment lives in a
substantially different firearms context than someone in an urban
environment, and further that our legal architecture has trouble
adapting itself to this dichotomy.

I, however, live in an urban environment.  I also think that: a) I
don't want to kill anyone[1]; b) I don't think anyone wants to kill
me[2]; c) that carrying a gun, perhaps paradoxically, reduces my
safety because of second-order effects; and therefore d) getting
worked up about threats to my safety enough to carry a gun around for
"protection" seems like a silly and counter-productive thing to do.

I don't begrudge rural people their firearms.  I think whatever
theoretical benefit to liberty that gun ownership brings is somewhat
remote (current data suggests that mortars, RPGs and improvised
explosive devices seem better suited to that function).  I think the
threat of rampaging armed criminals is substantially overblown and
further that obsessing over it (and trying to take personal
responsibility for solving it with firearms) in aggregate probably
makes the problem worse rather than better.  I think gun owners would
benefit from intellectually separating the "fun" part of shooting from
the (I think) fatuous rationalizing that they are somehow contributing
to society by packing heat around in a city like Portland.

[1] pretty much "don't want to" period, under any circumstances.

[2] particularly, in view of (a).

-- 
Russell Senior         ``I have nine fingers; you have ten.''
seniorr at aracnet.com