
India launches 'lightest gun' weighing 250g - robhodge
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35504566
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rtl49
It's amusing that this article states outright that carrying a gun can "not
really" make people safer, because guns are banned in so many places. Instead,
Indians need "better policing" and "changing attitudes."

Is there anyone who believes this nonsense? What percentage of the population
would need to be police in order to prevent every rape? What change in
attitude is going to stop sex-deprived men from acquiring what they are
programmed to want more than anything else?

This particular gun won't do much -- you'd have to be more than a good shot to
stop a gang rape with a six-shot .22 -- but to claim that personal defense is
best delegated to the authorities in these cases is simple nonsense. But
perhaps this claim is more palatable to their audience than that they would
prefer live with a certain amount of rape and other violence so long as there
are no guns being carried around.

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jeremysmyth
_What change in attitude is going to stop sex-deprived men from acquiring what
they are programmed to want more than anything else?_

This statement is profoundly insulting to the billions of men who have enough
self-control _every day_ not to destroy another person's bodily integrity and
dignity to fulfil a temporary need. Just because some people cannot control
themselves to obey the law and common respect does not suggest that their
attitude is normal or cannot be changed.

There's a similar argument used in certain conversations about rape to the
effect that you wouldn't dangle a tasty slice of bacon in front of a dog and
expect him not to jump for it. While that might be true of feral dogs, I've
known many domesticated dogs who are capable of even that degree of self
control, and I _absolutely would not_ apply the same metaphor to humans, or
otherwise suggest that we are incapable of distinguishing ourselves from feral
animals in the face of certain desires. We're better than that, and for you to
suggest otherwise is abhorrent.

~~~
rtl49
False indignation is a poor way to arrive at the truth. "Insulting,"
"destroy," "abhorrent," etc. Sheer emotion.

You seem not to be familiar with Indian society at this moment in history. I
won't trouble you with the details, since that might require setting aside
one's ego for a moment. But for the sake of appealing to your strong sense of
emotion, I'd like you envision a life where you live in abject, degrading
poverty, you have no prospect of a better future, premarital sex and
pornography are stigmatized, there are more men than women, prostitution is
illegal, and there is essentially no realistic prospect you will ever have any
consensual sexual encounter with a member of the opposite sex for the rest of
your life. Maybe you'd feel slightly more like the feral dog than you do at
the moment.

We are animals, in no way set apart from the other species. Those of us who
exert "enough self-control every day not to destroy another person's bodily
integrity" are merely lucky. To suggest otherwise simply reflects this
profound, Utopian ignorance of the human condition that only the world's most
pampered are privileged enough to relish without consequences.

