The great American gun argument goes on and on. Whenever there is a mass shooting the argument rears it ugly head as all civilised peoples of the world pile into the US and their outdated laws.
The American Rednecks counter with their tired old defence of freedom stance. We have been through this argument a thousand times but still are not able to impress upon the Good Ole’ Boys the need to get the guns out of the hands of the public. The United States of America considers itself the bastion and protector of democracy and freedom. That will be a democracy where the majority of voters cannot elect their president, whereas a country such as India with four times the number of voters can organise a more accurate result in less time. That will be a democracy where the opposing parties would rather halt all government processes than do a statesmanlike deal with the opposition to ensure that government can continue. Protector of freedom, that will be the freedom to buy a hundred guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition and shut yourself away in a mountain to avoid paying your taxes, better that than heading into a school or post office with a grievance.
And that surely is the point, Americans do not have a monopoly of aggrieved employees or pupils there are just as many per capita in any country, but when someone in the UK or France or Germany gets the hump and starts a confrontation someone may get a black eye. When you lose your temper it is not uncommon to lash out and at worse you might have access to a stick, not a knife because most people even in a rage could not do the squishy thing of stabbing someone. However when there is a gun, a good old anonymous killing gun, freely at hand then it is the simplest thing in the world to point and squeeze.
If guns were as freely available in Europe as they are in the States then surely we would have many more mass shootings as the causes and emotions are the same. The point is, there isn’t and so there aren’t.
Earlier I mentioned the Rednecks and I think it fair to say that the Americans who are the most in favour of keeping their guns are the white majority. Not all whites are Rednecks it’s just that all Rednecks are white. I am also going to continue to refer to America as uncivilised because no civilised society would tolerate the level of gun crime they have. When there was a terrible shooting of children in a school in Scotland the UK government immediately banned the possession of hand guns in private homes. Since then there has been no repeat. When there was a terrible shooting in Tasmania Australia the government very quickly banned assault and automatic weapons, since then there has been no repeat. These are civilised countries that made decisions to ensure uncivilised acts no longer involve the easy way to kill many. We despair of the USA. Why, Oh why, Oh why can they not see the folly of their ways? There are plenty of countries in the world who have as much if not more freedom than them without the need for a second amendment.
Jackie@JBeedie.com