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dk: thanks for posting the above--it cleared up something of where you are coming from. from there, i can see why we would focus on different things--you on the person who is or understands him/herself as bineg violated/threatened--me on the consequences of this type of situation unfolding on those who are by-standers, involved with it only because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong moment.
i actually do live in west philadelphia.
there is occaisional violence nearby---i hear it from time to time, the gunshots.
not long ago, someone was shot outside a chinese resto up the block. the person who did the shooting wanted the guy's backpack., the guy was attacked from behind.
i have been in a number of ugly situations myself in the past.
i know many people who have experience more/worse than i have.
none of this--experience direct or relayed--has indicated to me that increasing the number of guns makes any sense, and even less a redefinition of when and where that gun can be used.
so i think we could talk past each other endlessly on this.
on the other hand, my exwife was kidnapped once--it was terrifying, but as it happened overseas and there were no guns involved, she was able to get out of the situation after about 12 hours with no physical harm done. i mention this so say that i sympathize with the particular situation that you posted above---the sense of violation direct, intense, immediate--but it did not lead me to imagine that a gun or any number of guns would have done anything but make that into a far worse situation for her, for me--and a parallel view obtains for the question of guns in general.
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a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
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