Re: Student arrested over Counter Strike map

["Brian Loe" <knobdy () gmail com>]

On 5/5/07, Richard M. Smith <rms () computerbytesman com> wrote:
> Brian,

> On Friday, I struck up a conversation with a cab driver who was giving me a
> ride in downtown Boston.  Since he spoke with an accent, I asked where he
> was original from.  He said Somalia which he left about 15 years ago because
> of the civil war and the subsequent meltdown of all government institutions.
> I asked him where he lives now in the Boston area.  He said he use to live
> in Roxbury, but now lives in Malden.  He had to move out of Roxbury he said
> because there are too many kids running around with guns killing people.  I
> guess he could have stayed in Roxbury and armed himself, his wife, and his
> kids with a guns for protection per your recommendation, but he instead
> voted with his feet, left Roxbury, and got himself and his family out of
> harms way.
>
> I'm wondering also if you see any ethical issues with gun makers promoting
> guns as protection devices for the "good guys" against the "bad guys" who
> the gun makers have also sold their products to?  Aren't the gun makers
> simply trying to arm both sides in order to make more money?
>
> Richard

Serious question? I hope so, and I'll answer the best I can.

Gun manufacturers do not sell their guns to bad guys. Manufacturers
sell their wares to gun dealers and gun dealers sell those ware to
people who qualify for purchase in the most restricted and government
regulated business in the United States. Gun makers do not want the
bad guys to have their wares because, if not for ethical and
humanitarian reasons, its bad publicity - and attracts law suits.
These answers are common sense.

Now, lets address your cab driver's issues. How far is he willing to
run before he makes a stand? When considering the safety of my wife
and children I will likely choose to run before fighting and risk
losing, leaving them to the wolves. However, I'm not going to run
forever. Perhaps I'll make friends with other fellow good guys and
together make a stand. There are always more good guys than bad guys -
its just a matter of motivation, to get the good guys doing something,
having hope. Our inner cities are in such a decay not because the bad
guys took over, the bad guys took over because the good guys ran!

A question for you, how much gun advertising have you seen? There is
virtually none in the major media outlets - most of it is done via
shows about hunting and such. The only way to see anything other than
hunting gun ads is to go out of your way and look for it - buy, for
instance, gun magazines. Once you do, you'll see that things like
pistols are very specialized - geared toward competitive shooting,
concealed carry, general defence, etc.. Things a bad guy just isn't
interested in - for that, the gun manufactures would have to advertise
"easily removed serial numbers" and such.
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