So I hadn't really been paying much attention to this sniper thing... The only annoying thing about it was that in the beginning, every single channel was running live shots of some cop saying he didn't know squat, 24 hours a day.
That's what I really hate about TV in the U.S. When a story somehow passes a critical 'sensational-ness', it blocks out every other story in the world, and we can't even find out whether Europe has another strike, or that China bullied Taiwan again...
But yesterday this butt-nugget actually shot someone at a shopping center where I had been hanging out earlier that day. This has made it more personal. It makes me want to get myself a gun.
I had actually been thinking about registering for a concealed carry permit in Virginia and learning to shoot, since we may be living here for a while. I firmly believe that the only way to catch this guy is for him to screw up, or for someone on the scene to go after him with a gun. If we can trust most of our citizens to be good people, we can take advantage of them to stop crazies like this guy.
Sure there should be regulations, but years of the toughest gun laws have failed to produce anything in D.C. but the murder capital of the world. Do they have anything to lose by allowing upstanding citizens to carry handguns, allowing them to defend themselves, allowing them to stop crimes?
I would carry a gun if I could. I have trained quite a bit. (Training is very important...) I've gone to Frontsight Firearms Training Institute and have trained with a pistol, a shotgun and a rifle. http://www.frontsight.com/
But, I can't carry a guy in Japan.
As they say at Frontsight... "An armed society is a polite society..."
I've been thinking about learning and getting one for quite a while now, but I just can't justify the time yet. If everything settles down, I still have about a million things to do before I get there... :(
Have you ever read "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein? Very germane to your quote -- it's about a prison colony on the moon where there is very little law. The murder rate is close to zero (although it was high in the beginning), so it is a very "polite society"... ;)
Posted by: Trevor Hill at October 18, 2002 06:11 PM
Interesting thoughts as always Trev. =)
It's pretty freaky that you were at the shopping center where someone was shot, earlier the day of the shooting. Be careful. What's sad is that this sniper is most likely a "nobody" looking for a way to attain power in his or her life. Which makes you ponder an even bigger question and seems to justify why we have organized religion in the first place (i.e. keep all the drones in church where we can give them purpose so they don't freak out and go on a killing rampage. Not to diss organized religion *too* much ...).
Generally speaking though, I guess I would have to agree with you. It's things like that push me towards support of a strong defense. I'm all about peace, don't get me wrong - I'm no war fanatic. But sometimes you have to fight to get peace ...
Later chief.
Posted by: Justin Gottschlich at October 22, 2002 12:27 PM
Hey, man... :) Good to hear from you...
I do think that we will have to give up some privacy to get some security in a globalized world. But this doesn't really have to be a bad thing. You will just have to let the government know about the dangerous items you own, and who you are.
We could solve so many problems through an efficient gun registration and tracing system, while still allowing people to buy almost any gun they want as long as they're an upstanding citizen... Wouldn't that be a lot better than not being able to find guys like this sniper? I think it would, and it wouldn't really be much of a change. Banning guns is overkill...
Posted by: Trevor Hill at October 22, 2002 06:09 PM
Posted by: Joi Ito at October 18, 2002 06:48 AM