splavl-tree/Online-Algorithms/08/data/aky135.txt

Guns don't kill people; people kill people is more true than gun control advocates
admit. Look at the number of murders committed each year without guns. Stabbing
deaths occur as often as gun deaths in this area and elsewhere. Would those who favor
gun control also call for knife control? 
Do you think persons intent on murder are not imaginative enough to kill without guns or
knives? I recall the 1982 murder of a woman with a sledgehammer by her estranged
husband at a nearby shopping center. Watch how quickly the art of poisoning returns
should other weapons be outlawed. 
Prejudice Against Guns
Face it: People who want government enforced gun control are prejudiced against guns
and gun owners. Having already made up their minds that guns are inherently evil, they
reject facts to the contrary. They forget that ordinary citizens own guns primarily for
hunting, target shooting, and as collectibles, as well as for self-defense. 
Worse than being prejudiced, those wanting laws to control gun ownership are
dangerous! For the doubtful possibility of saving some innocent lives, they would deny
ordinary citizens their right to keep and bear arms. These are the same people who would
use the force of government to deny you other human rights as well, which do not fit
their ideas about society. That is anti-liberal! 
Guns for Self-Defense
When it comes to self-defense, guns are important to some people, especially women, the
poor, and the elderly. Consider how many rapes, muggings, and burglaries are prevented
by a potential victim flashing a gun. 
Even so-called Saturday night specials will frighten criminals away. In fact, these
cheap guns are the choice of poor people, who are most likely to be victimized and least
able to afford expensive guns for self-defense. The show of any gun can be a deterrent to
crime. 
A recent attempted robbery in a nearby town was foiled when the victim stabbed and shot
one of his assailants, scaring off the other two. We can only guess what would have
happened to the victim if defense with weapons were not possible--but he would have
been robbed for certain. 
A Protection from Government
Those lobbying for laws to control guns assume the government police will always be
benign. There are many formerly free countries that are now dictatorships where citizens
made that mistake. Just imagine what government officials would do with records of gun
ownership if our government became totalitarian. 
Not all that many years ago, a gun might have been the only thing that saved some blacks
in this country. Even government police posed a danger to you if you were black and
became uppity. How easy it is for those who would have the government control guns
to forget! 
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