From: kossack@owlnet.rice.edu (Jordan Marc Kossack)
Subject: Re: gun(s) for carry in a car
Followup-To: tx.politics
Reply-To: kossack@qvi.com
Organization: Bubbas R Us 
Distribution: houston
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 04:33:48 GMT

In article <7OCT199213374101@jetson.uh.edu> schieber@jetson.uh.edu (Schieber, Jay D.) writes:
- >	I wouldn't count on this, but the comments about how you look
- >and act certainly seem true....my brother in law, an HPD officer, says
- >essentially the same thing.  But, there again, how far can you trust a
- >brother in law?  IME, unless you have done something suspicious, you
- >won't get searched (in vehicle) for a traffic violation.  The key is not
- >to have your weapons in plain view.  And not to act weird.
- 
- This is truly discomforting.  The police are openly condoning the 
- carrying of fatal weapons by the masses.  The police are going to 

	Well, considering that the police are unable to prevent violent  
   crime from occurring, what is wrong with allowing citizens to carry 
   tools that will improve their chances of surviving a criminal attack? 
   After all, self-defense is a basic human right and to deny folk the 
   ability to have the tools to exercise this right is unconscionable.  
   Too, bearing arms is a Constitutional right, as is public assembly. 
   Would you be so outraged if the police condoned the protests outside 
   the dome during the RNC?  What if they condoned National Night Out?  

- decide who is OK on the basis of looks?  Let me guess: cowboy boots,
- big belt buckles, and chewing tobacco are OK, nose-rings, long hair,

	Good guess!     :-) 

	But seriously, the police are human.  Until such time as our 
   city streets are patrolled by an army of robocops, individual cops 
   will have to exercise their personal judgement.  After all, they 
   just don't have the time to thoroughly search every car they have 
   stopped for traffic violations, nor the time to search every person 
   outside of their home after dark.  Even if they did, the ACLU would    
   have a fit (rightfully, IMHO) if the police engaged in such blatant    
   violations of citizens' Fourth Amendment rights.  

	Look, I'm not saying it is right, and you have my sympathy if  
   you're hassled because you fit some police profile, but that's the 
   way it works.  You're more likely to be stopped/hassled/searched if 
   you look "suspicious" to an individual officer.  If you want to 
   argue that the profile should be changed, I'm willing to discuss it 
   with you.  Regardless, the fellow was explaining how things are, not 
   how they should be, so let's change the subject line if we're going 
   to discuss this topic.  But, getting back to guns ...   


- Every time I read stuff like this about Houston, I feel less safe here.

	You can always move to New York, where the serfs are not 
   permitted to own/possess/carry arms but the goblins have all 
   sorts of weapons anyway.  After all, they're criminals - they 
   don't mind breaking the law.  It's the working class Joe who 
   actually obeys the law who gets screwed when he has no means 
   to defend himself against knife weilding punks, or the women 
   who are raped because the (rascist) Sullivan law made tools for  
   self-defense illegal so they are easy prey for wilding.  Feh! 


"25 States allow anyone to buy a gun, strap it on, and walk down the    
 street with no permit of any kind: some say it's crazy.  However, 4   
 out of 5 US murders are committed in the other half of the country:    
 so who is crazy?"                           --  Andrew Ford


-- 
 Jordan M Kossack  |  "From each according to his naivete, 
  kossack@qvi.com  |   to each according to his greed"  
  +1 713 240 2073  |                         -- Jeff Orrok