<p>I’m really into the personal responsibility thing (can you tell?)</p>
<p>I think that parents who LET their kids drink and then knowingly LET their kids drive should definitely be punished BIG TIME. Sheesh!! This happens? I suppose it does, but what a world.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m enough of a libertarian to think people should be allowed to drink and drive, but being caught past the limit should entail serious consequences. To my way of thinking, it’s really about letting people do anything they please so long as they don’t hurt someone else or endanger someone else unjustly. But in order to make that work, they have to be responsible, and there has to be some sort of rigorous accountability for screwing up.</p>
<p>Shoot, I’m in favor of issuing speeding fines on a scale based on both speed and the mass of the vehicle. Speeding in a massive vehicle is far more dangerous to others than speeding on a motorcycle.</p>
<p>I was shot at for saying it earlier (rhetorically), but it is not that unlike a woman/wife that has sex with her husband (if she does) not wanting that same man/husband perusing porn sites on the internet (whether she is or not).</p>
<p>Certainly the policy at BJU (got to laugh) is not to my taste nor does it remotely reflect my world view, nor the view of the majority of Americans–from the patrons of strip clubs to those kneeling in the pews of most churches; but given <em>their</em> view is clear and is what it is, I see no contradiction in it. </p>
<p>It is peculiar, but it hurts no one outside those who chose to follow it–if them.</p>
<p>Basically, if you screw up, you should pay. But I believe there are different degrees of screwing up and should be different degrees of punishment. The law generally recognizes that, I believe. Being confused by street signs and turning the wrong way on a one-way street when you’re new in town is not the same as ripping through a stop sign at 70 on a rural road when you’re familiar with the territory and just decided you’d go with the odds that there is no one you would kill. One case is not reckless. The other is.</p>
Absurd! You can’t live in America and not know a Christian fundamentalist. Ridiculous. For example, we have a family three houses down, who homeschool all their children, so they are home a lot. I know the parents well. Do we talk about politics? No. But there are other things to discuss, and our differences in views doesn’t preclude a nice conversation, sitting out on the steps.</p>
<p>BBM, the knife has a purpose. You use it to cut. I use many knives a day. They have a purpose. Sometimes I cut fruit, sometimes vegetables.</p>
<p>The car has a purpose too. I drive it to point A or point B. It’s necessary for transporation.</p>
<p>I get the point about enjoying guns for sport. That is a purpose, like hunting, if you are into that stuff. OK then.</p>
<p>But aside from those, I am not hearing much purpose to guns, and their danger is enormous. We hear far too many stories of accidental gun deaths. They are not few and far between.</p>
<p>Just quoting you, AM. Suddenly you have a fundamentalist neighbor, LOL.</p>
<p>Gosh, even I don’t know any homeschooling fundamentalists whose daughters where “long skirts.” If their girls wear long skirts (quoting you on a long-ago thread), they are more than likely Mennonites (as are some my neighbors)–but then, to you, what’s the diff?</p>
<p>Well, we’ve made some progress–not calling them “fundies” any longer, are we? Having a cupa tea, are we?</p>
<p>We have no/few Mennonites here that I know of. I didn’t think we had many evangelicals either, but I was wrong. This is a growing movement, as you know, and there are plenty, even here in LiberalLand.</p>
<p>These ones wear long skirts, and not matchymatchy ones like the Duggars on Family with 16 Children.;)</p>
<p>Well I never heard of the Duggar family, but now that I looked them up, I can truly see why you would be petrified. I mean, as long as homeschooling is legal, and they can thereby avoid public school condom dispensation (ha!), these people can continue propagating. Scary stuff. I can see why you are very afraid.</p>
<p>Nothing against homeschoolers at all. My neighbor homeschools for religious reasons, but I am no fan of public school either; she and I have had many a talk about our reasoning for keeping our kids out of public school (on edit: she may not like condoms or immoral thought in schools, HH; I don’t like mindless repetitive tasks and teaching to state tests…different reasons, same outcome). </p>
<p>One can always find an overlap for conversation if the desire is there…</p>
<p>Don’t forget that shooting and biathlon (shooting with cross-country skiing) are Olympic sports. Maybe that gives gun ownership more credibility.</p>
<p>Personally, I think those who own guns should be subject to stiff prison sentences and very high civil liability if they screw up as gun owners. If you take on ownership of a deadly weapon, you’d better be ready to go to jail and lose everything you have if you screw up.</p>
<p>So if your car gets stolen and is used to run down a child should you be responsible criminally and civilly? Should you be required to store it in a locked garage and be drained of fuel when not in use?</p>
<p>But aside from those, I am not hearing much purpose to guns, and their danger is enormous. We hear far too many stories of accidental gun deaths. They are not few and far between.</p>
<p>You are a victim of the anti-gun propaganda machine. A gun is a weapon and a tool, sometimes a toy. Yes some of us play games with them but most are based on the real use as a weapon or a tool. Its a tool for hunting. It is a weapon when used to defend your life or anothers life from threats. It is an equalizer. It can make a petite woman or child equal with an overpowering physical threat, whether it be man or animal. Yes there are many threats out there, more man than animal in todays world. Guns are used everyday to stop those threats. You dont hear about them. The anti-gun propaganda machine is entrenched in our media and our schools. They know if they can shape the minds of the young then generations down the road maybe there will be no guns. Problem is those threats will still be there and we will be without the ability to have an equalizer. </p>
<p>Guns were used to gain our freedom and to maintain our freedom. Our forefathers recognized the God given right to defend ones self and country and thats why we have the 2nd amendment. It doesnt grant us the right to own guns , it recognizes that right. It is also there as a tool to guarantee our Liberty against an oppressive government, if the need arises. An unarmed citizenry are not citizens but subjects. </p>
<p>Now back to topic. I went to a Baptist college for one semester and I took my pistol. Kept it in my drawer. Another student reported me. I never even realized it was against the rules. I was raised with guns and taught how to handle them, to respect them and to be safe. My kids are taught the same. We even shoot competitively together. The dean of the school called me in and told me to leave it in my car. And that was it. </p>
<p>The University of Kentucky has a shooting range in the basement of the armory. It has shooting teams. I am sure guns are not allowed in the dorms though.</p>
<p>Those who rely on the gun as an equalizer frequently shoot each other accidentally. They might have meant to use the gun against an intruder, but instead their kids get ahold of it and shoot or kill each other. Happens frequently. </p>
<p>Thanks, but I won’t live in fear of some big, bad boogie man out to get me, from which I need a weapon to protect myself. If you want to live in fear, be my guest.</p>
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<p>Ah. So, the citizens of America, with their weapons, should take to the streets and shoot each other out? Sounds like Iraq…or Gaza, and we all see how well that is going. </p>
<p>Weapons in the hands of the stupid or irresponsible spells nothing but trouble, and there is no propoganda in that.</p>