Correction:
Anyone can hunt with a
NORMAL bow in Maryland. To use a CROSSBOW you need to be in an area that
will complain if you use a firearm for hunting, and secondly, you need a doctor
to say "you have a bad back, and so can not use a normal bow, you need to use a
crossbow." I think you can legally buy a crossbow, but you can not use it
to hunt without a lot of mumbo jumbo permits and such.
Criminals will never cease to exist. No matter where the
lines are drawn someone will cross them, someone will live on the other
side. Because by defining a place for ourselves we in turn define a place
for others. Make a theoretical persona, and someone will step in, you can
be sure. There are lots of people looking for a place to exist, a set of
lines to defines themselves by. They could take a nightmare's place just as
easily as a hero's. And as society changes, tables will turn, lines will
rotate and crime will be redefined, causing new criminals. Crime will
never cease to be. It as integral to humankind as is charity.
By
tugging at the line of guns, we see the people whose lives are defined by
it. There are many that hold the fact that they own a gun because they
can, tempting fate or no, close to their hearts of selfhood. I don't
believe that was being threatened. I heard a lot of calls for common sense
driven gun laws, not laws driven, carried and defended by machismo
incarnate.
~erin tasuki46@hotmail.com
Editor's note: I believe many of the "million moms" are
calling for an amendment to the constitution declaring all hand guns to be
illegal. The equivalent of this has already been done in Britain, and they
have seen higher crime rates as a result. It is my general opinion that
outlawing something (alcohol, drugs, guns...) only serves to create a
black-market in which A. there is much more crime; B. a
grossly misleading stigma grows up around the contraband; and C. only those with
evil intentions end up getting their hands on the goods, while those who would
use the product wisely and within their rights are denied the opportunity.
Not only is this unfair, it is ridiculous and counter-productive, speaking
logically.