Europe has very strict gun control laws and homicides caused by guns are very rare. Should we discount their experience?

The dynamics of oil prices will move us to live closer together. It makes sense that the more people are in each other’s faces, the more likely they are to have conflicts. Adding guns to the mixture raises the likelihood they will be use. The Supreme Court granted us the freedom to have guns. If history is any guide, they will cause a lot of homicides. A few will be burglars, but the vast majority will be people we know and get into an argument with and let escalate.

It led me to review the conversation you and I had about gun control after the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech. It was an enjoyable experience to review your points and mine. It was interesting to apply our respective thoughts against some of the points made regarding the Supreme Court decision. As expected, our respective point of view and recommendations cannot solve the situation now any more than it could a year ago.

Two key points about our discussion came to mind:

1. One thing we did not discuss is the difference in upbringing and perspective from a person like me raised in rural Pennsylvania and someone (maybe like yourself) raised in the big city like DC. The more I debate the issue with people the more I realize how much of an impact your place of origin has and, as important, whether you were raised with guns in the house or not. In simplest terms, people who were raised with a gun(s) in the house tend to see it perfectly natural to possess one. Those who didn’t find it dangerous, offensive, unnecessary, and the root cause to violence and death related to handguns.

I have guns (two rifles, two shotguns, and one handgun). I own a concealed weapon permit but rarely carry. Due to my inherent non-violent nature I am a very low risk to use my handgun to kill someone.

On the other hand (and please forgive the stereotyping) a black 17 year old male raised in a poor black neighborhood where crime and violence are common is going to behave in an evil manor for his own gain using whatever means possible. Yes, I acknowledge that the ease of access to a deadly weapon such as a handgun makes the 17 year old’s opportunities to kill much easier. But in this example the inherent nature of the male and his intentions are the cause of the problem not the tool that he (and his gang members) choose to use to enforce their wishes.

We are not going to solve the violent nature of these cultures by removing handguns. They will be violent without them, and kill without them. Even if every state were to create a law which makes it illegal to buy and possess a firearm it would not solve the problem. Criminals would either acquire handguns illegal (as I suspect they do every day) or find an alternative method to assert their will.

On a related note, I support thorough background checks and waiting periods for firearms. And I have a tough time understanding why someone needs a rocket launcher or an AK-47. But, the rocket launcher is rarely in the news where it was used to kill another human being in civilized areas (non-war zones).

2. I TOTALLY agree with your point about the effects of increasing population density. I purposefully purchased a piece of property (2 acres) to provide a cushion between myself and my neighbors (whom I happen to get along with quite well). When I look at subdivisions with 3500+ sq ft houses and 20 feet separating one house from another, I cringe. Human beings are not intended to live in those conditions…not without consequences that we read about in the papers everyday.

As always, thanks for “insightful” articles. They are much more interesting to read than CNN or MSBC.

They’re now taking it a step further and actually rendering terrain, obstacles, and flight paths into the flight control display. If you’re flying in less-than-visual conditions (clouds, etc), you would normally rely on ground-based radio navigation. Their newest creation basically turns the flight control display into a video game that just happens to be hooked up to the airplane. Now that’s magic!

See: http://www.aopa.org/pilot/firstlook/080408garminsvs.html

“It is achingly low tech and unpretentious. It seems to be inhabited by contributors who cannot bothered to spell check or use mixed case.”

Read again and again until you can’t be bothered any more about windmills.