"William Black" wrote in message
news:JfmWh.8753$537.6729@newsfe5-win.ntli.net...
>
> "Deeply Filled Mortician" wrote
> in message news:b6sj23h12eb076uhud3nstcufaqch7ij7b@4ax.com...
>> Make credence recognised that on Sat, 21 Apr 2007 09:34:56 GMT,
>> "William Black" has scripted:
>>
>>>
>>>"Deeply Filled Mortician"
>>>wrote
>>>in message news:5rjj23lduh8e6s10r60apon0hru140c2qq@4ax.com...
>>>> Make credence recognised that on Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:14:10 GMT,
>>>> "William Black" has scripted:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>"Hatunen" wrote in message
>>>>>news:opni23pmam61udvj6r27e619nruf4llfb0@4ax.com...
>>>>>> On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:37:24 +0100, The Reid
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:58:49 -0700, Hatunen wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>The world has a lot of loonies in it and the vast majority will
>>>>>>>>never do anyone any real harm. It would be wrong to lock them up.
>>>>>>>>The problem is that it's hard to tell ahead of time which few are
>>>>>>>>truly dangerous.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>but you can say they cant have guns.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And what are the criteria you propose for that denial?
>>>>>
>>>>>"Why do you need a gun?" Is a start.
>>>>>
>>>>>"Because they're really cool" would not be an acceptable answer.
>>>>>
>>>>>Neither would "The people next door are noisy".
>>>>>
>>>>>Then some basic background checks about mental health and drinking
>>>>>habits.
>>>>
>>>> Drinking habits??? What on earth would that have to do with anything?
>>>
>>>As a general rule alcoholics and habitual drunkards are not people you
>>>want
>>>to own guns...
>>
>> You didn't answer my question! What makes you think drunks are more
>> likely to be killers/criminals or whatever?
>
> They're not.
>
> But they do make more mistakes when operating equipment liable to cause
> significant damage to innocent bystanders.
>
But how do you know someone is an alcoholic? Do we take their own word for
it? Get a sworn avadavit from a judge? Also, a person can be an alcohol even
if he/she hasn't touched a drop for 20 years....do we expect them to still
make mistakes?
I agree with your premise, but in an open society it is really hard to draw
those lines.
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