I just heard about the details of the attack on an Amish school: I almost threw up in my car. The perp, because of some incident in his childhood, separated the adults and the boys from the girls, and then shot the girls (aged 3 to 16) execution style.
Brits just don't get Americans on guns. Indeed, it was the Tories under Mrs Thatcher who banned all guns. The ban is so strong that the British Olympic shooting team has to train in France. (I don't know what they will do in 2012 when the games are in London.)
Violent crime is much lower in England. There are violent criminals of course, and some gun crime, but the police still do not carry guns. [In fact I never saw one until I went on a high school trip to Russia in 1976.] There is a limited number of deaths one can perpetrate with a knife or battery acid.
There seems to be a problem with violence in the American psyche. And, while it is true most gun owners are not criminals, it is equally true that ALL perps of gun crime are gun possessors.
One could not effectively remove guns from American life at this stage. It would be possible, though, to ban the sale of ammunition. Gun owners could then stroke their, umm, guns, without harming others.
UPDATE
A friend points out that "real 'gun nuts' load their own ammunition, or own black powder rifles."
I suggest that "gun nut" is someone who needs either a facelift, or some viagra, KY, and a Kleenex.
1 comment:
In regards to the lower crime in Britain, it is important to not that correlation is not causation. There are probably other mitigating factors other than gun ownership.
I also don't understand how gun prohibition could work. It didn't work for alcohol. It is not working with narcotics. So logically it would not work for guns. Besides, prohibition usually makes problems worse.
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