Re: Don't blame the doctor-- (alsoknownas"Don't Shoot the Messenger.")(f

>> pat, thanks for your distinction between demand and supply. i think i
>> am pretty much aware of it. what i am asking is the relevancy of this
>> distinction under a capitalist economy when it comes to gun selling and
>> buying. i am talking about a particular commodity not just an ordinary
>> item. to what extent does "gun purchasing" constitute an "actual"
>>demand?
>> do we know the percentage of the people in the US or anywhere who
posses
>> guns?

>Perhaps I misunderstood you. What do you mean by an actual demand? Are
>you suggesting that the demand by A to rob B or to defend herself
>against B's efforts to rob or rape is not an "actual" demand?

pat, i can not think of buying a gun simply because somebody will rob or
rape me one day. we are not living in a perpetual state of war. this is a
tautology based on a pessimistic view of human nature. self-defense can
not be a justification for buying a gun. plus, people do not always use
guns for self-defense, they just find it "available" around, and kill
others as it happened in the recent colorado incident. 

we can not make a differential treatment for those who use guns for
self-defense purposes. and we really do not know who uses guns for
defending themselves and who uses them for harming others.if guns are
illegal, it should be illegal for everbody. we should illegalize guns to
prevent such happenings instead of thinking the profit motive or consumer
demand behind it. since there is a huge gun lobbying in
this country serving to the interests of corporate capitalists, it is
politically impossible to achieve this goal. 


of course, i am not talking about extra-ordinary circumstances like wars
where weak people have to use guns to defend themselves against hegemonic
powers. revolutions and anti-imperialist struggles would have been 
impossible without guns. whereever there is domination, there is
resistence, whatever the form of resistence is. however, this is a
historically spefic example which is not relevant to the subject matter of
the discussion now. in my original question, i was rather referring to the
ordinary life circumstances. do we really need guns? or are we being
brainwashed by the those who naturalize the need for guns in the name of
self-defense?


regards,

Mine Aysen Doyran
phd candidate
dept of pol scie
SUNY/Albany