Gun Lobby

I wrote the following post about 'Kids With Guns' back in March 2013 - long before the latest tragic shooting in America (Nevada) where a 12-year-old student shot and killed his maths teacher and injured two fellow pupils (also aged 12) - before turning the gun on himself.

Now I was being ironic earlier in the year when I suggested that the 'solution' to America's gun problem is that everyone should carry a deadly weapon for self-defence - including young children.

But as I wrote I can hear some deluded 'nut-job' from the National Rifle Association (NRA) making that very argument - which makes about as much sense as every country in the world, including the really crazy ones like North Korea, having their own nuclear weapons.

So, to my mind if non-proliferation is the correct policy for making the world a safer place - safe from nuclear weapons - then surely it makes sense to reduce the number of powerful handguns and other weapons that are in circulation in American towns and cities.  

Kids With Guns (25 March 2013) 

I read a news report which says that the American state of South Dakota - voted to allow school teachers to carry guns into their classrooms.

Now this sounds a bit of a half-hearted measure to me - because why not just go the full hog and allow schoolchildren to carry guns as well?

Because that's the logic of the argument - it's other children and more often as not young teenagers who are most likely to be in harm's way - when the shooting starts.

So why put your life - or your child's life - in the hands of a teacher?

Who may be a terrible shot or who may decline the opportunity to carry a gun in the first place.

Seems to me that this is a particularly short-sighted measure which doesn't have the courage of its own convictions - that more or less everyone should bear arms. 

Now the end result is likely to be that schools in South Dakota will become far more dangerous places than ever before - but that's the logic of this particular argument. 

America's Dunblane (15 December 2012)

There are obvious parallels between the Dunblane massacre in Scotland in 1996 - and the cold-blooded murder of innocent children in Connecticut yesterday.

16 years ago an inadequate man with a grudge and a gun walked into a local school in Dunblane - a nice, middle-class part of Scotland - and deliberately killed 16 young children and the teacher - before the turning the gun on himself.

In the leafy suburbs of Connecticut yesterday - a young man, armed with a variety of weapons, killed his mother at home before making his way to the school where she had taught - Sandy Hook Elementary - and shot dead 27 people including 20 children aged between 5 and 10.

The response in Scotland was swift and already tight gun controls were tightened even further - so that now you can't even buy an air gun (a BB gun in America) without a licence and a police check.

Now this doesn't make Scotland a better place than America - but it sure as hell makes it a safer one because there hasn't been another similar incident in Scotland since 1996.

Whereas in America these violent shootings seem to occur every few months as disturbed and/or inadequate people - with easy access to a wide array of firearms - decide to settle some score and make a name for themselves.

Now I don't underestimate the difficulty of changing things in America - because I know a few Americans and even some of the more liberal-minded ones buy into this business - about a citizen's right to bear arms.

I can see their point - up to a point - but yet again a major shooting incident has occurred but despite the proliferation of guns in America - the shooter is not stopped dead in his tracks.

Instead he kills himself with his own weapon - or as in previous incidents he is caught by the police after carrying out his foul crime.

The word 'his' I use quite deliberately since men have been responsible for all such incidents as far as I know - from Dunblane to Norway to America.

One thing's for sure, there will now be a big public debate in America - the one that was so noticeably absent from the recent Presidential election - which Barack Obama won, of course, but by steering well clear of any confrontation with his country's gun lobby - as did his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, to be fair.

If any progress is to be made, I suspect this will only happen if the politicians avoid the kind of strident behaviour and language - that turns people off and sends them back into their bunkers - instead of encouraging people to think rationally and reflect carefully.

I can understand an argument that says the more people who carry guns - the safer things are for everyone - because the bad guy can be dropped dead with a single shot before he carries out his evil plan.

But that's a recipe for everyone carrying a lethal weapon - even teachers and young children at an elementary school - and sounds like something from the movies not real life.

So let's hear from you President Obama - people say that in American politics 'you campaign in poetry but govern in prose' - but this is a time for the kind of words and leadership which inspire a great country to change.