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Guns for Vasectomies
Because this modern world just isn't fucking weird enough:
Officials in central Madhya Pradesh state's Shivpuri district decided to adopt the policy—already tried out by some neighbouring states—to increase the low vascectomy rate.
"I came to know that it had to do with their perceived notion of manliness," said Manish Shrivastav, administrative chief of Shivpuri district, part of the Indian Chambal region, which is famed for its lawlessness and bandits.
"I then decided to match it with a bigger symbol of manliness—a gun licence," he said. "And the ploy worked."...
"I never bothered to apply for a licence before because I knew it was not so easy to get," said Shivpuri resident K.K. Saxena, 55, who recently underwent the procedure. "But when I heard about this then I decided to apply."
Saxena was provided with a medical slip confirming his sterilisation to attach to his gun application.
About 10,000 to 15,000 people apply each year for gun licences in Shivpuri, but only about 500 permits are granted annually.
Here's hoping the Supreme Court, currently hearing its major gun-control case since 1939, doesn't read about this.
Lord Jubjub|3.18.08 @ 4:15PM|#
Gives new meaning to an army rhyme:
This is my rifle, this is my gun
One is for shooting, the other for fun.
|3.18.08 @ 4:20PM|#
meh, a vasectomy is too mild. Now if becoming a eunuch was required before being allowed to own a gun, that would be an interesting experiment.
|3.18.08 @ 4:21PM|#
I don't like no one touching my stuff. So just keep your meathooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I'll kill you. And I don't like nobody touching me. Any of you homos touch me, and I'll kill you.
|3.18.08 @ 4:47PM|#
"clip" ... there's gotta be a "clip" joke in here somewhere
...
Heeeeeeere, clippie, clippie ....
|3.18.08 @ 4:53PM|#
Isn't this a little discriminatory towards women who apply for a gun permit? Or are they required to get their tubes tied?
Rimfax|3.18.08 @ 4:54PM|#
Can't help but wonder whether or not a "good enough" "I've been snipped!" note forgery isn't a lot cheaper than a vasectomy, even if the procedure were free and you just consider lost wages.
Episiarch|3.18.08 @ 4:56PM|#
So I guess they were issuing so few permits for...no good reason. How unsurprising.
|3.18.08 @ 4:57PM|#
"Guns for Vasectomies"?
Oooooh, I thought they were just doing away with surgical
instruments for the procedure.
That's one way to man-up and show what you're made of, figuratively
speaking now.
LarryA|3.18.08 @ 5:46PM|#
Isn't this a little discriminatory towards women who apply
for a gun permit?
Given attitudes toward women and with an issue rate somewhere
between 3.3% and 5%, I'd guess not many (no) women get
licenses.
Several months ago I had a couple take my Texas CHL class. They had
moved down from a discretionary state. There they had each applied
for and qualified for a license, up to the point where they had to
meet with the county officials who would determine if they "needed"
CHLs.
He got one. She was turned down. After all, they had given her
husband one, so he could protect her.
If gun ownership is a civil right, discretionary license schemes
that produce similar results are going to be low-hanging
fruit.
Irony: During the shooting practical she scored higher than he
did.
BakedPenguin|3.18.08 @ 6:53PM|#
Irony: During the shooting practical she scored higher than he did.
My brother's ex was friggin' Annie Oakley. She had 5" - 6" groups
at 20 yards from a snub nosed .38.
I don't know if that made him feel emasculated, but they never had
a kid while they were married.
LarryA|3.18.08 @ 7:13PM|#
Not unusual. In my classes wives shoot better than husbands about 80% of the time.
Mad Max|3.18.08 @ 7:19PM|#
So, if an Indian man agrees to be sterilized, his government
will graciously give him permission to possess a firearm? How
generous!
Here's an idea: If your Socialist economy is so f____d up that you
can't feed your own people, maybe that means it's time to get rid
of socialism, not to get rid of the people.
Kolohe|3.18.08 @ 8:16PM|#
Well, the inevitable guns for toys program will serve as countervailing incentive.
Mad Max|3.18.08 @ 8:43PM|#
Once again, let me call attention to Pope Piux XI's 1930
encyclican *Casti Connubii,* which denounced compulsory
sterilization at a time when progressive, right-thinking people
were all hot for it:
"68. Finally, that pernicious practice must be condemned which
closely touches upon the natural right of man to enter matrimony
but affects also in a real way the welfare of the offspring. For
there are some who over solicitous for the cause of eugenics, not
only give salutary counsel for more certainly procuring the
strength and health of the future child - which, indeed, is not
contrary to right reason - but put eugenics before aims of a higher
order, and by public authority wish to prevent from marrying all
those whom, even though naturally fit for marriage, they consider,
according to the norms and conjectures of their investigations,
would, through hereditary transmission, bring forth defective
offspring. And more, they wish to legislate to deprive these of
that natural faculty by medical action despite their unwillingness;
and this they do not propose as an infliction of grave punishment
under the authority of the state for a crime committed, not to
prevent future crimes by guilty persons, but against every right
and good they wish the civil authority to arrogate to itself a
power over a faculty which it never had and can never legitimately
possess. . . .
"70. Public magistrates have no direct power over the bodies of
their subjects; therefore, where no crime has taken place and there
is no cause present for grave punishment, they can never directly
harm, or tamper with the integrity of the body, either for the
reasons of eugenics or for any other reason. St. Thomas teaches
this when inquiring whether human judges for the sake of preventing
future evils can inflict punishment, he admits that the power
indeed exists as regards certain other forms of evil, but justly
and properly denies it as regards the maiming of the body. 'No one
who is guiltless may be punished by a human tribunal either by
flogging to death, or mutilation, or by beating.'"
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121930_casti-connubii_en.html
Mad Max|3.18.08 @ 8:45PM|#
What a shocking development - modern societies need to take a lesson from medieval philosophers about the wrongness of mutilating innocent people for an alleged higher social objective!
Mad Max|3.18.08 @ 8:48PM|#
It should be redundant to explain, in a libertarian forum, how threatening people with the loss of their right to bear arms unless they submit to mutilation is precisely the kind of evil denounced by the 1930 encyclical.
|3.18.08 @ 9:03PM|#
"I never bothered to apply for a licence before because I
knew it was not so easy to get..."...The district of 1.4 million
people has just 11,000 licensed arms, but locals say they want guns
because bandits have large numbers of unlicensed weapons ...About
10,000 to 15,000 people apply each year for gun licences in
Shivpuri, but only about 500 permits are granted
annually.
The story doesn't really supply evidence that men are using gun
licenses to offset the supposed insult to their masculinity that a
vasectomy represents. Instead, I think people are merely responding
to the incentive offered by the ability to gain something vital,
protection for their families, which otherwise they could not buy
for any price.
It's very revealing how these "news" stories of people protecting
themselves always fall into such a predictable narrative. And as
always, the final word is given to a critic of self-defense.
*Sigh*
Mad Max|3.18.08 @ 10:42PM|#
Who will break the news to DannyK that we papists have an entire Holy Week, not just one day?
|3.18.08 @ 11:46PM|#
Mad Max | March 18, 2008, 10:45pm | #
And we also invented Halloween."
yup. When the priest says "trick or treat" you run screaming into
the night.
Mad Max|3.19.08 @ 7:24AM|#
When the government functionary says, "do you want me to take away your gun or your dick," you can run screaming into the night if you want to, but I would approve a more direct approach to such tyranny.
zardoz|3.19.08 @ 7:47AM|#
The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life,
and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the
gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals.
Go forth and kill!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070948/quotes
|3.19.08 @ 9:04AM|#
In the next article they will tell us what they had to give up to get bullets for their guns. I am thinking trigger fingers.
|3.19.08 @ 10:15AM|#
Shannon Love,
The desire to protect ones family with a gun is just is only a
silly notion of barbaric macho ideology. We have the politicians,
Child Protective Services, DEA, FBI and the police to protect us
and that is the proper role of government. The 2nd amendment is
just some crap a bunch of racist old paleo anarchist are in favor
of. In a modern global community there is no place for wild west
vigilanty justice.
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