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No Guns Less Killing
Dear Sir or Madam,
I was amazed when I read the letter titled 'No Guns, No Safety' by Debbie Okamura.
Ms. Okamura claims that carrying a gun would reduce the risk of attacks in which knifes are
used. I must say that it requires years of self defense experience to be able to defend oneself
successfully against an attacker using a knife, and reaching for a gun in a moment of panic is
by no means a recommendable technique, since it takes far too much time and poses a heavy
provocation for the attacker. As a matter of fact for a skilled person it is easier to counteract
against a closeup threat with a gun than against a closeup knife attack, and it gives any
unskilled person carrying a gun nothing but a false feeling of security.
I am also not particularly thrilled by the thought that nervous and untrained individuals
walk around in the dark on the edge of panicking and shooting at every shadow.
Crime is after all nothing about carrying weapons, it is something about problems of
the society on a far larger scale. If the stoneage 'right' to carry weapons reduces crime, I still
do not understand why there are so few armed robberies, attacks and murders in France,
Germany or Scandinavia, all countries in which firearms are completely banned. The reasons
for the growing violence in the USA is definitely something else and violence just provokes
more violence. This has to stop somewhere before the whole country becomes a warzone.
Sincerely Yours
S.Thiesen