At 09:48 PM 5/11/01 +1100, Christian Gerzner wrote:
>.
>I find it much sadder that today there are people out there who
>seemingly rejoice in their collection of death dealing devices
>"because it is their right" to own these.
>
>It is not. It is their right to defend themselves as best they may, if
>they are attacked. That they collect armament to do so is suspect,
>does it imply guilt even? Certainly it implies a sad society which
>requires this type of defense.


         Perhaps this sense of sadness and implication of guilt reflects a
cultural difference.  I'm not sure how familiar Christian is with the
rights guaranteed citizens in the U.S. Constitution against the power of
the state, but the right to bear arms is one of them.  Traditionally, U.S.
citizens prefer a weak government and an armed populace, and I've noticed
that the more money our federal government extorts from the citizenry the
more intrusive it gets in people's business at home and other nations'
business abroad.  In my view, broad  gun ownership is a good counterweight
to a government out of control.  Not only didn't my father take a personal
oath of loyalty to the leader, F.D.R., during the second world war, but
also the government had to threaten him with jail to draft him.  It's a
cultural difference, but what I consider a healthy suspicion of the
government.  In fact, I'm surprised that anyone in the world wants to see
more constraints taken off a U.S. federal government which seems to so many
people to already be too given to foreign adventurism.  To my mind, if
there's anything sad about the U.S., it's the federal government's
enthusiasm for trying to manage the affairs of its citizens and the affairs
of other nation states.

         Well, I'm glad Christian eats meat.  (...and I'm glad he takes
pictures of fish but that's another discussion.)  The last vegetarian
Austrian emigre whose father was a government official and who opposed an
armed populace and inveighed against hunting that I know of caused my
father to be drafted.  I too have strong feelings about who should have the
guns and what's a sad society, and when it comes to guilt I think history
shows us that governments do more blameworthy things on a large scale than
do private citizens, but for the sake of SCUBA-SE, I'm eager to agree to
disagree and let it go.  Also, I'm sorry to have made public what should
have been a private e-mail to Lee, so this is my last post on the subject.

         BTW, I don't hunt although I did in my youth, but I do shoot
crows, rabbits, woodchucks, and gophers as an alternative to poison or
traps.  Nonetheless, I think hunting is a fine sport which gives exercise,
sharpens the eye and motor skills, and creates a knowledge of and
appreciation for nature though perhaps not as fine an appreciation as
taking pictures, and that I do do.  Well that's enough "do do," my next
post will be scuba oriented.


DPTNST,


John