Jeff,
Wow you are very educated on this matter, are you a professor who lectures this material at a university?
Kind of a weird coincidence happened tonight while I was watching an old episode of SNL.
Phil Hartman and his wife were about to go out for the night when his wife stated her concerns that their son (played by fred savage, who's probably only 12 or 13) might find the father's gun and start playing with it. Phil convinced her it was alright because the gun was hidden behind a stack of playboys and the bullets were in the liqour cabinet - and that kevin wouldn't go in either of those places
Well he obviously gets the gun, loads it and starts playing around to find his father standing at the doorway. Kevin then pulls the gun on Phil and begins to negotiate, how there are gonna be a few changes in the household. While Kevin has the gun pointed at phil the wife (blond chick forget her name) comes home and pulls another gun on kevin. They then send him to his room like no big deal.
The moral of the story is about firearm education being told by kevin neilon in the epilogue (sp?). As he's talking he gets startled by Phil and pulls the gun on him which happens again less than a minute later by Julia (?) which causes him to drop the gun and setting it off. It was pretty funny, espicially considering how we're discussing this right now.
Anyways, this thread alone is taking up too much of my time that i should instead be doing for schoolwork. It seems like there's only a small crop of us greeks trying to prove you wrong, where's everyone else?
But there is one more thing I will challenge you on. Do you honestly believe severe punishments serve as a detterence to crime? I really don't think it does. Crime is vital to the progression of society, it will always be around.
- Nick