><jmsatb5@aol.com> wrote:
>> > > None. But we're now in the grips of the pre-emptive administration,
>and
>> guns
>> > > *have* been used to mow down whole schools,
>> >
>> > *whole schools*?
>>
>> Well, I can not speak for all instances, but I CAN definitely say that for
>> the Columbine shootings, while Harris and Kliebold did not kill or injure
>> "everyone," their intent was to kill and injure as many as they could.
>> Hell, they even had bombs (bad ones) placed to try to blow up the entire
>> school! Now granted, bombs are not guns, but it DOES show that their
>intent
>> was to kill everyone if they could. If they could have done it with guns,
>> they would have. Just because no one has YET killed or injured "everyone"
>> at a school with guns, does not mean that they haven't wanted to or tried.
>
>But that's not at all what JMS said... he said, quite clearly, that it
>*has* happened (his emphasis, not mine). In fact, he even used the
>plural, to indicate that not only has this happened, but it has
>happened (n>=2) times!
>
>I'm noticing there wasn't a reply with a citation, so I'm going to have
>to assume there isn't one, and it was just (as I noted) sensationalist
>nonsense designed to evoke a emotional response instead of a rational
>one, which is pretty much one of the signs of a very weak debating
>position.

You know, there comes a point where the debate enters the range of
hair-splitting, and this is one of them.

Yes, Columbine is one example of what I was thinking of. Was every single
student "mowed down," was every student murdered where he or she sat? No. But
to therefore take that one word -- whole -- and totally dismiss the argument is
the worst kind of pettifogging. Was every student at Columbine murdered? Of
course not. But they shot their way down school corridors, through multiple
rooms, the library, the cafeteria, killing everyone they saw, and then blowing
up a section of the library...you may not thing that constitutes "mowing down"
the school, but I'd suggest you try that logic with the parents of the kids who
died that day. I think they would disagree with you.

Strongly.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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