That the government did nothing should unfortunately come as nosurprise, either. Today's powers that be often seem to think collectingtaxes is and spending money for pet projects is all they owe citizens. It's time that governments quit hassling honest citizens overgun rights and invasions of privacy and start locking up thosewho are really dangerous to society. Nevertheless, it is time that governmentsstart at least making the effort to do this because in today'sfast paced world full of mind-altering drugs, abandonment of religiousnorms, and confusingly rapid changes, there will most likely bemore and more people who sleep with pigs and go berserk. Don't hold your breath waiting for governments to start doingtheir jobs right, though.
Politicians generally take the easier course.
Accordingto press statements made this week by Israeli and American officials,the Nautilus system should be available in prototype form fortesting by the end of 1997. The system, when deployed, will be capable of shooting down missileswith very powerful laser beams. Not only that, because they workat the speed of light and can be computer controlled, the systemshould be capable of knocking down small unguided Katyusha rocketsas well as larger intercontinental ballistic missiles. Such a system won't be cheap. As mentioned in the last column, accidental discharges are a partof owning firearms.