Not clear on the concept...

[kengr]

I'm sure their hearts are in the right place but the local Unitarians are reacting to the Tuscon shootings by trying to get a "gun free zone"set up. They are passing out signs to businesses and the like.

But they don't seem to grasp the idea that someone like Loughner would have just ignore any "gun free zone"if there'd been one there in Tuscon.

I'm not gonna get into a "gins are inherently bad"/"the people misusing them are the problem"argument.
But wherever you stand on the issues please try to keep in mind that only law abiding people will pay attention to any such "zone".

It's the worst sort of "magical thinking". "If we forbid this, it won't happen."

Sorry, the world doesn't work that way.

Comments

[fayanora.livejournal.com]

Crazy person with a gun set to do some killin, gonna see a sign saying "No guns!" and walk sadly away? HA!

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the Berkeley law making it a crime to manufacture, posses, or detonate a nuclear weapon inside the city limits. Fine: $500.

At the time of the law being proposed, it was pointed out that the only real target in Berkeley was the university (which isn't subject to city codes) and nuclear weapons detonate at an altitude which places them above the civil control zone. Undeterred, The Peoples' Revolutionary Council passed the law.

[polydad.livejournal.com]

UU's seem to have a bad problem with magical thinking; as a new UU myself I'm trying to figure out how to address the problem.

Would it be possible for you to get for me the contact information of one of these UU's, so that I might open a conversation with them? Alternatively, ask them to email me at polydad8@yahoo.com; my own contact data are hardly confidential.

best,

Joel

[kengr]

go digging arounf on the kgw.com website. It's been a featured story on their nightly news for 3 days now. They'll have info.

[mikkop.livejournal.com]

Well, after a school shooting here in Finland our Minister of Interior wanted to ban illegal guns.

It was pointed to her that illegal guns are banned by definition...

[kengr]

Yeah, one of the more famous/infamous NRA slogans/bumper stickers gets ignored or made fun of because it's a truism that the other side just *can't* deal with mentally:

"If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns"

For some reason, these folks have trouble grasping the concept that "laws only stop the law-abiding from doing things".

*Punishments* dictated by laws will only stop folks who think they'll get caught (another major flaw in the thinking of many people who propose laws to "fix" things).

And even then, you have to really stop and consider mindsets.

Somebody who has decided that they need to kill a bunch of people (which pretty much carries life in prison or the death penalty, depending where you are) is *not* going to *care* that there are penalties for using a gun, having a gun in the area, etc. Ditto for laws about explosives.

But the "sheep" type people can't envision someone thinking that way. So they propose laws, mandatory sentences (which really, *really* mess up the court system) and so on. All because they fail to grasp the essential truth that the folks they want to stop *don't* think the way they do.