dude, you guys totally missed the point

so tonight we were discussing conventional weapons when someone pointed out that it wasn't an issue of the weapons manufacturers selling small arms and light weapons, it's more of a problem that there is a market for that. and if the market ended there wouldn't be a problem. which is fine but almost all SALW that are causing the majority of the problems are bought on the black market. (and somehow this blanket category covered everything from machetes to F-16s)

and it ALMOST devolved into a "guns don't kill people, people kill people" discussion. except it was actually a "proliferation of conventional weapons isn't the problem, political instability is the problem" discussion.

so i think that to eradicate political instability, we should have a new convention, along the lines of the npt, biological weapons convention, and convention on conventional weapons.

it should be the let's hold hands and skip convention.

because then we could proliferate conventional weapons all we want, just no one would be allowed to foster the hate and discord that leads to their use.

6 comments:

jay are Thursday, April 13, 2006 2:04:00 am  

see, it's just a matter of thinking clearly. And who'da thunk?? I think you've got a point.

Anonymous Thursday, April 13, 2006 10:12:00 am  

guns don't shoot people. cheney shoots people.

Chris Cope Thursday, April 13, 2006 12:12:00 pm  

Comedian Jake Johannsen rather famously said: "Guns don't kill people. It's those damn bullets. Guns just make them go really, really fast."

It sounds as if the argument fell into the traditional issue of prevention verses end product. It's often hard to decide where to put the emphasis in that problem, but I think in the issue of arms proliferation, the end product determines the focus. It would be nice if people got along, but they don't, and several thousands of years of human history suggests they won't anytime soon. So you have to address the immediate threat.

I'm pretty sure people have hosted Let's Hold Hands And Skip conventions, which are held in conjunction with the Preaching To The Choir conventions.

particleman Thursday, April 13, 2006 6:43:00 pm  

i like ice cream.

Crystal Friday, April 14, 2006 11:37:00 am  

how many times do i have to tell you that you will not have to deal with this kind of crap if you just stick to conversations about what's happening on La Madastra this week.

heatherfeather Friday, April 14, 2006 11:39:00 am  

if only i knew what la madastra was.

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