Shooting victims' kin urge action on guns

[CHIMO]

A Conservative proposal to dismantle the gun registry would be a "grave error" for Canada, relatives of shooting victims said today in calling on federal leaders to ignore partisanship and work together to get guns off streets and murderers in prison.

In an impassioned news conference one week before Canadians head to the polls, four mothers who lost their sons and a man who lost his cousin challenged all parties to outlaw handguns, deny bail to anyone charged with a gun-related offence, and increase sentences for those convicted.

The group wants the next government to get new anti-gun laws in place within 100 days of the start of a new mandate.

"We have to have tougher gun laws — it shouldn't even be a debate," said Elaine Lumley, whose son Aidan, a 20-year-old university student, was shot and killed outside a Montreal club last November.

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Guns don't kill. People kill.

So I guess with this simple logic we should ban people. Or maybe evryone should have a... to protect them.

[iverglas]

1. what sense does that make?

Guns don't kill. People kill.

Were those really *your* words?

Second edit, on second thought: I think the answer is "no", so the rest below is directed at the Conservative Party. ;)


Anthrax doesn't kill people, people who mail anthrax to other people kill people. So we shouldn't "ban" anthrax.

So I guess with this simple logic we should ban people.

If only that "logic" weren't a complete straw fabrication.

I'm curious how you might construct a scenario in which Jane Creba or any of the other bystanders / mistaken identity victims shot (not just killed) in Toronto in the past year might have been injured/killed by "people" who didn't have firearms.


edit:
Or maybe evryone should have a... to protect them.

... or how having a gun, or anything else, would have "protected" any of them.

[CHIMO]

2. You Are

Right, or I should say correct. I have been peeved off for so long with the comeback "guns don't kill people" that I thought, well OK who does kill people.

Well if the instrument is not the killer then why are atomic bombs so horrible when we hear the refrain I have the right to protect myself and the right to bear arms.

Well a few hundred years ago that might have meant a few dozen citizens fighting something. But today that would amount to, well quite frankly nothing.

So if one were to adopt that logic then everyone should have the right to WMD in their control.

Just getting fed up with the simplistic, shoot from the hip mentality, and trying to extend the logic to a final conclusion.

Thanks for your bite.