gun control

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the problems run much deeper than the fact that people own guns.

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Agreed. But it sure is easier to pop someone from ten feet away than to risk getting blood on your jacket using a knife, or possibly even getting hurt yourself. That's why you don't see Columbines with machetes or warclubs: too much personal involvement. A gun eliminates that.
Remember: Guns don't kill people. Bullets do that.

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As long as there is a drive to violence there will be violence, guns or no guns.

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Exactly. But violence is much less likely to be lethal without something that kills at a distance, like a bullet. A gun keeps the killer from having to get personally involved, and that, I think, is why the US has such a large murder rate. Regulating guns now, in 2003, may well do no good, because way too many are out there. Without a time machine, and with alcohol and testosterone freely available too, we're probably pretty much stuck with our current situation.

John - I think you misread wj's intended statement.
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lists the stats: the US has about 4.5 times the homicide rate of Australia, and 4 times that of Canada. And 70% of the homicides in the US are with guns.

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I woulnd't want firearms readily available to a population of ex-convicts either.

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So the US shoul ban firearms in the state of Georgia, since it started as a penal colony too. Makes perfect sense.......