From: nguyenpd@ntmtv.UUCP (Phat Nguyen)
Subject: A Japanese Student Kill in Lousianna (AKA Gun Control)
Originator: nguyenpd@nmtvs315
Reply-To: nguyenpd@ntmtv.UUCP (Phat Nguyen)
Organization: Northern Telecom Inc, Mountain View, CA
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 18:23:23 GMT

In article <1992Nov9.195320.22393@ntmtv> nguyenpd@ntmtv.UUCP (Phat Nguyen) writes:
>But then I may also
>afraid that some young children may use it unintentionally and
>hurt themselves.  There is a tradeoff.  If guns are cheap and
>can be easily obtained, then I may buy it because the tradeoff
>is not that great.  But when guns become illegal so I have to
>pay 10 times as much and go through a lot of burdensome in order
>to have it, then the answer is NO.

In article <1992Nov12.080639.21402@adobe.com> pngai@adobe.com (Phil Ngai)
writes:

>> So what you're saying is that if a gun costs only $200 and your
>> son might use it to hurt himself, you'd be willing to take that
>> risk, but if the gun cost $2,000, you wouldn't. Just how much
>> is your son's life worth to you?

Thank God!!  You are not that stubborn and ignorant Mr. Freeman that
I have to deal with.  As a matter of fact, I would love to argue with
him and find out how far our intellectual and reasoning go.  But
unfortunately, I really have no time for it.  Here is the short 
answer to your question:

1.  I am not a gun maniac.  Even if you give it to me free, I would
    not even bother to take it.  The hypothetical situation that
    I use above is only a illustration of how things may go.  There
    are other possibilities as well.  But to list them all would be
    too time consuming.

2.  In that situation, I am not talking about me.  I am putting myself
    in the situation of a person who is afraid of all of the violence
    going on around him/her and he/she decides to buy a gun.  Let go
    into the psychological profile of a typical gun owner and see how
    he or she would think.  You can do more research on this 
    psychological profile by reading Psychology articles that related
    to guns in (i.e. Journal of Social Psychology, Criminology) and
    numerous textbooks that deal specifically with inner city crimes.
    Not all people buy guns for recreation.  As the matter of fact,
    these people buy guns because they are fearful of the violence
    going on around them.  If you read newspaper at all, the 
    largest increase among new gun owners are women.  And since
    the Los Angeles riot, demand for guns have increased greatly.
    The published results sound reasonable to me.  Since rich
    people already live in affluent and safe neighboorhood and
    they rarely go into inner city where crimes are ubiquitous,
    there are no need to buy guns unless they are into gun
    collecting or recreation.  But as I have said, today 
    recreation and gun collecting are not the main reasons that
    people buy guns.  Now let go back to this psychological profile:

    He/she is not particularly rich (probably from lower to middle 
    class) and not particularly very educated.  With that in mind,
    then we can talk about how cost affect the decision then. When
    one is not particularly well off.  Cost can be a determining
    factor.  Fear vs. gun cost and gun cost vs. everyday survival.
    What makes you think that he/she would spend all of his/her
    savings just to buy a gun when he has to pay other expenses
    as well??  Can fear be justified???  The answer is yes and no.
    It really depends on how much one is fearful of the violence going
    around him.  But I think that ordinary people are not that
    fearful.  Again I say that cost may not prevent all people
    from buying a gun illegally, but it may prevent a large
    portion of the so-called novice gun owners.
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