From: rab@stallion.oz.au
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 06:08:10 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: RE: "Show me an example of terrorists using the Internet or crypto"
Message-ID: <82E14F2F282AD11180330000010380310152E6@mallory.stallion.oz.au>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Cynthia Brown wrote:
> On Wed, 1 Oct 1997, Alex Le Heux wrote:
> 
> > You people just don't get it do you? A gun has one purpose: To kill.
> Just like
> > any other tool, a gun, if it is available _will_ be used at some
> point.
> > 
> > So making sure there are lots of guns around only serves to make a
> lot of
> > people very dead. This is a Bad Thing.
> > 
> > Gun control laws are not the issue. It's a matter of mentality. In
> Europe,
> > where we have rather strict guncontrol laws, and have had them for a
> long
> > time a decent human being will not even think of shooting someone
> else. In the
> > US, where guns are tradition and part of the American way, many
> people would
> > not think twice before shooting someone. The result of this is that
> the
> > number of people getting killed by guns is enourmous, be they
> criminals,
> > little kids, old grannies, or presidents.
> > 
> > This sucks.
> 
> I agree wholeheartedly.  Uncontrolled guns do not solve problems, they
> 
> create them.  If most households have at least one firearm, it makes
> it 
> that much easier for a criminal to obtain one by stealing yours while
> you 
> are at work.
> 
> Canada may be regulated to death according to most libertarians, but I
> for
> one like it that way.  I can walk alone and unarmed at night in
> Ottawa,
> Toronto, etc. without fearing for my life.  Can a female resident of
> Washington or New York say the same?  Our schools do not have metal
> detectors
> at the entrances because they are not needed. 
> 
> IMNSHO the best way to fight crime is not with bigger guns than the
> "bad
> guys", but with better social programs such as universal health care,
> and
> improved day care so single parents can show their kids what a
> productive
> lifestyle looks like.  This takes longer than blowing the brains out
> of some
> teenager that feels his only path to a better life is through crime,
> and it
> doesn't give the same adrenalin rush.  However, it works at the source
> of
> crime, and not the consequences. 
This kind of talk makes me sick.  For a start universal healthcare is
totally unaffordable, when there is little or no cost the end-user over
use of the services provided are inevitable, just look at Medicare here
in Australia.  Social security above certain levels leave recipients
unmotivated to take responsibility for their own lives and is a bad
example to their children, who will probably number largely among those
teenagers who do turn to crime.

> Cynthia, unrepentant bleeding-heart liberal
Robert, unrepentant dry.

> ===============================================================
> 		   Cynthia H. Brown, P.Eng.
> E-mail:     cynthb@iosphere.net  | PGP Key:  See Home Page
> Home Page:  http://www.iosphere.net/~cynthb/
> Junk mail will be ignored in the order in which it is received.
> 
>         Klein bottle for rent; enquire within.
> 
> 
>