Monday, September 25, 2006

Our Civic Duty

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You gotta love this one.

Proposed Ordinance Asks Each Household To Have A Firearm

Hey, if it's okay for Switzerland, then it's okay for Idaho!

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would love to see a nation-wide bill proposal along the same lines. There's enough evidence that it detures crime across the board...criminals may be dumb, but they're not suicidal in 99% of the cases!

No politicial can say it will cause more harm, than good; there are no good arguements. Just ask those folks in Georgia!

25/9/06 12:43  
Blogger warhorse said...

Hmmm ... I'm not going to say that would be a bad idea, maverick, but I would want the answers to a couple of questions (at least!) before I'd sign off on it: Do the crooks actually get deterred, or do they just do their thing somewhere else? (Relevant at this scale, as there would no longer be a "somewhere else" for them to go.) Does the presence of a gun in the house increase the likelyhood of death or serious injury from, eg, accident or domestic dispute? If so, how does this increase compare to the expected decrease in crime? I'm asking this from honest ignorance; as an urban Canadian I have very little experience of firearms and their associated culture.

25/9/06 15:18  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As my history prof. use to tell us, warhorse: "The stupidest questions are the ones you DON'T ask."
I don't know if I have all the definate answers, and if I get something wrong, someone is sure to correct me. It's happened before. ;-) Nevertheless I can answer what I feel I know, or have a decent impression of what is accurate.
-1. Yes, if the crooks know there is such a program in place (as in that, Georgia town mentioned in the article) they will be detured. After-all, the desire for self-preservation is still strong, even if you're on the wrong side of the law.
-2. They may move to another town/city to further their criminal activity. But if it is a state-wide ordinance (for example), it would be difficult, and expensive for them to move to a state that doesn't have that "law" on the books.
-3. The presence of a gun in the house can be dangerous if the owner doesn't know proper gun storage/usage techniques. That is another stipulation in the bill in Idaho: mandatory gun safety classes, and marksmanship training/testing. Domestic dispute? The only thing I can think of to help curb that from happening, is extensive backgroud/criminal history checks. As far as whether violent domestic disputes w/ firearms increasing in relation to the crime rate declining overall...I simply don't know the possible statistics on that relationship, nor if they even exist. I would certianly hope that the domestic violence rate wouldn't go up, yet I would think it might go down along with the crime rate. Simply put, I feel as though the husband & wife (for example) are level-headed and are not susceptible to spontainious behaviors, they would be MORE cautious, not to let any arguement esculate to that dangerous "point-of-no-return".
No law is ever perfect, but some are many times worst than others. But I personally would take any possible risk of a mandatory gun-ownership ordinance, over the increased probability of being robbed & possibly killed without it. I believe the ends would justify the means in this case.

25/9/06 22:07  

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