Moon Laws

On Oct 8, 10:27 am, John Schilling wrote:
On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 07:09:05 +0100, "Mike Dworetsky"

Given that any puncture of a habitat or space suit is potentially fatal for
all inhabitants, I'd definitely include in the constitution or body of law a
ban on private ownership of firearms.

Didn't we just have this discussion? A puncture of a habitat is only
"potentially fatal for all inhabitants" if you assume the inhabitants
are going to spend the next couple of days doing absolutely nothing
whatsoever about it. So, if you were administering a Terrestrial city,
would you insist on a ban on private ownership of matches?

Yes, you just had this discussion. It DOESN'T MATTER. The people who
think any hole is a catastrophy have seen LOTS of movies and TV shows
that show it being a catastrophy, and for the most part haven't taken
any classes in fluid dynamics at all (or watched myth-busters for that
matter).

I'm guessing no, but that you'd still be in favor of the ban on firearms.
Again, the legal and political environment in any future space colonies
is going to have a *lot* more to do with the people who decide to set up
the colony, than the nature of the colonial environment. Whatever laws
you want to impose on your neighbors, you'll find a reason to say those
law are particularly appropriate for your space colony.

Guns release evil gun mind control rays that corrupt otherwise non-
violent people into homicidal murderers even if no gun is actually
present. You should know this. The danger to the habitat is that the
people working in life support might NOT have a gun present, and hence
when one of them sucumes to the "gun poisoning" they will be forced to
resort to doing something seriously nasty rather than just opening
fire.

DougL