-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 An entity claiming to be Cynthia Brown wrote: : : I agree wholeheartedly. Uncontrolled guns do not solve problems, they : create them. If most households have at least one firearm, it makes it : that much easier for a criminal to obtain one by stealing yours while you : are at work. So take your gun to work ;) Yeah, I know ... that's not the point. : : IMNSHO the best way to fight crime is not with bigger guns than the "bad : guys", but with better social programs such as universal health care, and : improved day care so single parents can show their kids what a productive : lifestyle looks like. This takes longer than blowing the brains out of some : teenager that feels his only path to a better life is through crime, and it : doesn't give the same adrenalin rush. However, it works at the source of : crime, and not the consequences. I agree, but here's the catch: once you place the responsibility in the hands of the gov't, the system comes to a screeching halt. That which is mandated is corrupt, inefficient, and utterly useless. I'll tell you the first step to reducing crime ... get to know your neighbors. The problem that we have here in the U.S. is mobile society. How many Americans know the people on their street or in their complex? We have very little community left. A cow-orker of mine lives in the Oranges (near Newark, NJ), and she doesn't feel fearful when she walks through her complex at night. The tenants meet at least once a month on a semi-social basis, and so they know each other. It makes a big difference. I don't see most gov't funded social programs making even that amount of difference. The change has to be internal to the community, essentially decentralized. You can seed the ideas, but you have to understand that simply improving day care and health care isn't going to solve the problem, there has to be the internal process. Doc - -- [] Mark Rogaski "That which does not kill me [] wendigo@pobox.com only makes me stranger." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0 Charset: noconv iQA/AwUBNDLyS8HFI4kt/DQOEQJQeACg/faa10X1VKsvrxupS+FVNhDHI7IAnRbK 2WZq4js/Ont5zmkHsh8KzCYT =1sal -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----