Not Entertainment

[kandrathe]

Furthermore, I am not from the Netherlands, but I would not be a 'disarmed victim' of crime - even if I had been held up at knife or gun point. Disarmed implies that somebody forced me to not own a gun. And, oddly enough, I do think that gun ownership is for hunting or target practice.

Yes, you can willingly be unarmed, but as a law abiding citizen you have no choice but to be disarmed. So, what does it matter that you choose to be disarmed, when even were you to choose the opposite, you'd still be disarmed by force. There have been a half a dozen times in my life where I was in potentially dangerous situations, where "predators" sought to victimize me. Only a couple of those times did I have the option of choosing to have a gun. But, both of them, (maybe stupidly) I chose to face them unarmed. In all of the situations I've been in, I was able to use my confidence, and powers of persuasion to get them to move on, or at least keep them occupied until law enforcement arrived. But, someday, I might just run into someone who can't be reasoned with, and who despite my powers of persuasion will be determined to cause harm. I can surrender to them, or fight to save my life, or the life of my family. I would like to have that choice.

And at the same time your culture clings to the 'we really really need our guns' meme, with all those differing rationale's offered, depending on who is doing the 'splaining this time.

Rationality isn't part of any culture, is it?

It certainly is ruled by the lowest common denominator. When society is as peaceful as your ideology, then there will be no need for these tools for killing in self defense. I would say we should start improving society from the bottom up, rather than regulating it from the top down. We share the same ideological goal, but I believe we differ in approach and methods. If only law abiding citizens possessed the guns, they would soon deteriorate from lack of use, or be dismissed as a waste of money. The problem with guns as killing tools is that they are used by the criminals, and evil forces in our society. We wouldn't transform hell into heaven by restricting the goodness of angels.

That blog you linked to is a bit biased and in it's conclusion makes use of quite questionable math. It doesn't calculate the gun related wounded and dead in the equation, for example.

Perhaps. The point of the blog was to show that the Netherlands is not without gun crime, and it is getting worse.

I've read in other places that over half of all vehicle accidents involve some level of intoxication. It should be possible for vehicle computers to sense when someone is driving erratically, and unsafely.

The technology already exists actually, in the Netherlands we use alcohol locks for some repeat offenders. They have to blow in a pipe which measures their alcohol level before being able to start the car. Too much and it won't go. And yes, they can try getting someone else to blow, but this is a major deterrent nonetheless, field tests prove.

They have it here too. But, it's not in every car and only deals with that one intoxicant. Better to have all cars computers sense recklessness, set off an alarm, slowly reduce speed, then shut off for an hour. That way, any intoxicant, road rage, feats of incompetence, or even sleep deprivation would trigger the shut down.

I disagree there Pete. The USA has a democracy of sorts and in the end the majority decides. So apparently the majority of the USA wants their guns.

In fact... In our State, we've had permits to carry hand guns for over five years with a corresponding decrease in violent crime. The US Congress is even working on legislation to enable reciprocity for states that allow carry permits. I don't have a carry permit and don't feel the need to have one, but if I worked in some of the seedy areas of town where I have in the past, I would probably get one.