Belleville Intelligencer drags out stale argument

For those of us that wish to remain more-or-less anonymous, it's almost impossible to get formal Letters to the Editor published. It's because the newspaper editors typically want to know the full name and address of whoever it is that wrote the letter, before they'll even consider publishing it. That's fine - I understand. But it ain't gonna happen. Have you seen the stuff the pro-taser fan-boys have been accused of doing to those that dare to criticize tasers? Crikey... So I'll put a copy of my letter here so that (at least some) people will see it and understand the point. And we'll see if the editor in this case will admit his fundamental error, or not.


The Belleville Intelligencer (Bellville, Ontario) had an editorial that included the oldest, most stale, and dumbest of all the pro-taser arguments. Yes, that's right. They dragged out the old "tasers replace guns" argument. Here's the quote:

"[tasers]...are still many, many times safer than guns. Given a choice between a officer feeling the need to draw his gun and that same officer instead being able to draw his taser, we will take the taser every time." [LINK]


My 'Letter to the Editor', which was submitted but is not likely to be published, is this:


To the Editor of the Belleville Intelligencer:


Tasers replace guns? Puhleeze...

This is the most stale of all the many examples of misleading pro-taser propaganda. Even Taser International has been forced to walk away from this stinker.

The facts are that tasers are used roughly ONE HUNDRED times more often than police have historically (and generally-acceptably) used their guns. Of course this ratio will vary with locality and over time, but it's a perfectly fair approximation.

If the police had been shooting people at the same rate that they're tasering left, right and center - then they'd have become the biggest band of mass murderers in Canadian history.

And CBC found that police gun-fire was not reduced by tasers anyway.

So the argument that tasers are better than guns is left in a smoldering pile.

And by the way, violent deaths of Canadian police have increased by a 4-to-1 ratio in the five year periods before (4) and after (17) 2003, which is roughly when tasers started to become more common in Canada.

...

And I highly recommend that you bring yourself up-to-date with the taser issue before spouting the absolutely oldest pro-taser lie.

Every claim made in this message is fully backed-up, with links to sources for fact checking, on my blog.

www.Excited-Delirium.com (don't forget the dash!)

See also the Truth...Not Tasers blog. Google it, or follow the link found on my blog.

Now, after all this, if you still believe that tasers replace guns, well, here's yer badge:

http://tinyurl.com/TaserBadge

(Sorry, but it's become a running joke.)

Please correct your editorial. It's about 99% wrong.