Re: 30 days in the hole [was: I ate a sandwich in acar in the UK]

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <Version.32.19980823081236.00de7db0@205.134.163.4> Fringe Ryder writes:

> Okay, there's one example, but again, in America daily commutes can be over
> 100 miles round-trip just to the office.  Most of it is either wide-open,
> no entry/exit, light traffic, or is 5mph.  Either way, not a lot required
> and pretty low risk.

For nearly five years, I commuted to Hounslow from Kettering.  74 miles
_each_ way through dense and usually fast-moving motorway traffic.

> You have taken the typical British extreme view of "the government should
> protect the people from other people".

I think you're making an assumption from a knowledge base of British
cluture and practice that's pretty close to zero.

> For example, the British have effectively and progressively banned guns.
> Oddly, the British gun-homicide rate has accelerated it's climb during this
> process, while the opposite has happened in America.

I think the last thing we need is a gun control thread.  Saying that
our rate is "climbing" and yours is "falling" is distortion worthy
of the NRA at its best - they're still two orders of magnitude
apart.  The handgun ban is a long term measure designed to remove guns
from circulation over a period of perhaps half a century.

> If the salesman were informed that, should he run into someone while doing
> something else while driving, he would spend his life in prison even if
> they weren't killed, he might have made different choices.

I was in Rochester three weeks ago when the police tried to stop and
then chased a doctor onto his own driveway.  Then they shot him through
the head.  Personally, I prefer our approach - our police officers don't
have to approach the vehicles they stop with drawn guns.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
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