From: donb@igor.tamri.com (Don Baldwin)
Subject: Re: More Gun Control
Organization: TOSHIBA America MRI, South San Francisco, CA
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 19:52:52 GMT

Could we PUH-LEASE take this to e-mail?

In article <1993Jan21.132452.1981@dg-rtp.dg.com> cochran@spam.rtp.dg.com
(A. Jing Hippy) writes:
>|> In 1990, there were 46,300 motor vehicle accidents,
>|>                     12,400 deaths in accidental falls,
>|>                      6,500 accidental deaths by poisoning,
>|>                      5,700 accidental drownings,
>|>                      4,300 accidental deaths in fires,
>|>                      3,200 accidental deaths by choking/suffocation
>|> 
>|> and only 1,400 firearms-related accidental deaths.  Another thing you
>|> should know about that number is that it's HALF the number of accidents
>|> from 1970, this despite a massive increase in the number of firearms out
>|> there.
>
>Once again, I can't *believe* that I'm watching where I'm going and yet am
>about to step into this anyway.  I'll just leave my shoes on the front porch
>when I get home.

Well, I've been doing my share of stepping into messes of late, so I
sympathize.  Sorry everyone!

>Note the difference in the types of accidents reported above.  It's difficult
>to get around these days with some sort of motor vehicle transportation, 
>especially in the more rural areas such as the one where I live.  People will
>accidentally fall. People will ingest things that seem perfectly safe and
>yet are poison due to mislabelling or improper preparation/packaging. Even
>if people stop swimming or boating, there will be the occasional slip in the
>tub or falling into water that will lead to drowning.  Fires happen for all
>sorts of reasons that may or may not be preventable.  Choking or whatever?
>Well, that's anatomy for you.  It happens sometimes no matter what.
>
>But we don't *need* the guns.  If they weren't around, then that's 1400
>people that would still be here today.  Since 1970, it must be in the
>thousands.  I'm sure that you could cite the astoundingly low number of 
>accidental deaths that occur from bungee jumping or leaping out of a perfectly
>good plane with a parachute on your back, but that doesn't make the 
>activity any more defensible or intelligent.

First off, what this goes to show is that the chance that you will be killed
as a result of a gun accident is MUCH lower than the chance that you'll be
killed in either an auto accident, in your home, in a pool or while eating
in your favorite restaurant.

Secondly, the trend in gun accidents is obviously down, FIFTY PERCENT over
the last 20 years.  This is primarily due to education, a large part of which
was accomplished by the NRA.

Thirdly, I imagine (pure speculation) that those people who were killed
were NOT people who have been trained to handle guns safely.  So, if you
want to reduce your chances (and the chances of your family) of being hurt
or worse in a gun accident to near zero, you'll go with your family to a
gun safety class, instead of treating guns as yucky things that only
rednecks have.  A good 50% of the people I know with guns are at least as
liberal as me.

Finally, it's not your business to say whether people "need" guns.  Some
people do need guns.  Close to 50% of the households in this country have
guns in them, so people living there clearly feel they need guns.  And a
lot of people LIKE guns, get pleasure from using them safely.  Those
people will have guns, period, and the only way to get those guns away
from them would tear the country apart as surely as if the Supreme Court
had criminalized abortion.  The time for extremism and prohibition in
this country is OVER.

>"There have been zero deaths since 1970 that occurred from backing naked
> into glowing pot-bellied stoves with a piece of dynamite stuck up your 
> butt.  Therefore, this is a perfectly safe activity in which we can all 
> participate as long as we are properly trained."
>
>Peeve: "Logic" that says that as long as it hasn't killed *too* many people,
>       then it's ok.

I've got news for you Dave:  life is 100% fatal.  Everyone alive today is
going to be worm food withing a century, as will their kids and THEIR kids.
So I refuse to spend my life in a futile attempt to make life safe.  Instead,
I'll spend it doing things that I enjoy and not interfering with things that
other people enjoy, aside from things like test-driving race cars past
shools during lunch break and dueling with tactical nukes.

  don

p.s.  Did someone REALLY try to back into a stove with dynamite up their
      butt at Banta's party?
Newsgroups: alt.peeves