[Leica] Mind the Monkies

[buzz.hausner at verizon.net (buzz.hausner@verizon.net)]

Damn.  Just when I thought it was safe to play with those monkies!

>From: Walt Johnson <walt@waltjohnson.com>
>Date: 2006/10/20 Fri AM 09:35:13 CDT
>To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
>Subject: Re: [Leica] guns, photography, and the american psychosis

>Carrying that philosophy to it's logical conclusion is frightening. If 
>no one is in the forest then does the forest really exist: Is it all in 
>our Cartesian heads?  It would seem you are  misusing statistics on gun 
>ownership as well. Less firearms today than 20 years ago? Does that mean 
>fewer weapons or fewer weapons owners? I still have the .22 rifle 
>received on my 12th birthday, 52 years back.  Since then I've owned just 
>about everything in the way of handguns and quite a few rifles.
>
>Perhaps it's just a personal thing but guns became very boring. You 
>can't walk around outside playing with them as we do with our Leicas. 
>The craft which once was as much a part of gun building  as it was with 
>an M3 has long-since gone. Who the hell wants a plastic gun? 9mms are 
>fun (and cheap) to shoot but if used for self defense you'd better shoot 
>your assailant more than once or twice. Hunting is fine for those who 
>have the urge. Hunting weapons are fine as well but let's get serious 
>for a minute. Forty years ago many Americans had guns. Not many had 
>semi-automatic and high capacity military weapons.
>
>You keep coming back to the /knowledge/ of gun ownership or lack thereof 
>as if it is meaningful.. Do you suppose there are people in this country 
>who choose not to own guns? It takes absolutely no sense at all to pull 
>out a weapon and use it. Give me a week or two and I could teach a 
>monkey to hit a man-sized target at 7 yards. The idea there is something 
>un-American or otherwise wrong with gunless folks seems prevalent but 
>false. I am not against shooting people but strongly oppose shooting 
>unarmed and reasonably innocent humans. Honestly, it might be 
>entertaining to have the "World Series of Bang Bang" Dueling, I think, 
>was an honorable way to settle disagreements if it were structured. 
>Florida, as I'm sure you and Kyle observed, is crowded as hell. I'm not 
>against one of those brides with a garter belt pulling out her derringer 
>and wasting the bridesmaid but keep it a family thing. It could be 
>useful to let gun nuts fight it out north of Jacksonville to see who 
>gets to visit. Other than that though, those of us with a live and let 
>live attitude deserve our share of the universe.
>
>The other day Peter sent out Cassini images for Saturn. Pull it up on 
>your screen and look at it for a few minutes. After that a discussion on 
>gun ownership might seem irrelevant as hell..
>
>Walt