Hazel, defintitely do read more Heinlein. His books are all very good, and some are truly outstanding. I'd say that The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Trooperrs, and Time Enough for Love, are peerless in sci/fi.
I suppose I should probably put something in to keep this somewhat on topic. Hmm. There are far too many ways to kill oneself, or others, for that matter, for any attempt to control killing through controlling the tools to have any real effect.
Imagine, for a moment what life will be like once the Nanny State progresses to the point that ALL available methods of harming one's self or one's fellow man have been eliminated or controlled: no guns; all cooking done in communal kitchens, with only specially trained persons having access to kn ives, all powered vehicles removed from human control, all ropes designed break @ 100 lbs of pressure, no platic bags, all buildings, bridges, and other high structures built with safety nets; all rocks permanently glued to the ground, and even then, there are still a zillion ways to do it. Any tool can be used as a makeshift weapon. In the modern world, there's always electricity. Even with all that taken away, a healthy human is never totally disarmed. Hands, feet, knees, elbows, shins, even teeth can all do the job. In the end, the only way to stop a determined person from killing is solitary confinement. The only way to stop a person determined to kill himself is total physical restraint. The question then becomes: what's the point?
In the end, there are no dangerous weapons, only dangerous men.
~~~Mat
