Wednesday 18 April 2007

Bang Bang

There's a nice piece from Richard Herring talking about the lunatic NRA’s response to the recent shootings at Virginia Tech.

[It’s below the weird stuff about Natasha Beddingfield]

Yes, I’m sure the NRA are right, in this particular instance. If every student was armed, then the perp would have been shot by someone else after only killing one or two people.

SARCASM ALERT!

Of course, IF every student at a large university was armed, that’s the only reason they’d use their guns, isn’t it? We wouldn’t see people getting shot because someone had stolen someone’s girlfriend; or because they were failing their classes; or depressed; or mad.

SARCASM COMPLETE.

Those fuckwits at the NRA. Really. They are fuckwits. And if you really believe the first thing that they say it’s because you want to be a macho gun-slinging fool yourself.

Those are the only people we see whenever the NRA try to represent themselves. They put out well-meaning-sounding statements and talk about everyone’s right to have a single, appropriately-calibre'd weapon in the house “just in case”, but then you see the people who are actually IN the NRA and they all own hundreds of assault rifles and bazookas and flame-throwers.

Really - if anyone seriously thinks that the "right" to bear arms, just in case you MIGHT be the victim of a violent crime outweighs the tens of thousands of people killed with registered, legally owned guns each year, then they've got a screw loose.

The NRA card-holder would answer that by saying; "Look at Canada, or Finland, or Switzerland. They have very high gun-ownership rates, but they don't have huge problems with gun homicide rates".

Well, that's true. But then again, it's also true to say that macho, belligerent, posturing is not a national characteristic in those countries in the same way it is in the US. [And in the UK and many other countries.]

The difference is that in the countries where people tend to be a bit "gung-ho" about their civil rights and their property, gun control already exists.

The countries with high gun-ownership and low gun-crime are like the elder children. The ones you trust to baby-sit and cook dinner for the other kids while you're out.

Unfortunately, someone left the USA home-alone with a box of matches, some petrol and a few empty milk bottles...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, the NRA (as an organization) are a bunch of reactionary nuts. I am decidedly pro-gun but I refuse to join their ranks because they no longer serve a meaningful role (in my opinion). However, most of the NRA members (and non-member shooters) I know personally are more reasonable than your generalization would suggest but, you know, whatever. Whenever you see NRA members, I'm guessing you see them on TV.

You live in a castle over there in England, right? Your front door is a drawbridge. I saw that on TV once. :-) :-)

petercmoore said...

Yes, we don't see many NRA folks doing their thing over here.

And you're right about the castle. In fact, I dictated this comment to my butler and he had the housekeeper login and type it in for me...

MaryB said...

I offer no excuses for my fellow 'Merkins who seem to have the gun-lovin' gene permanently embedded into their DNA. Totally senseless. I cannot believe that the 2nd Amendment (which I interpret differently than the NRA) rules our lives here. Alas, I fear Pandora's box is wide open and we'll never be able to close it on this side of the pond. (And how can someone be "pro-gun"? What?)

Can't wait to see the new castle, BTW.

Anonymous said...

Maryb,

By "pro-gun," I meant, I'm in favor of (responsible) individual gun ownership.

Where I part company with the NRA is that I don't think everyone, everywhere should be armed to the teeth without limit.

The descriptions I'm hearing of "gun nuts" bear little resemblance to the actual, real gun owners I know (myself included). I realize that these unyielding "gun nuts" exist because I've see them making stupid statements on TV and in the paper, but I fear these few (noisy) whack jobs have come to project a false image of the average, responsible gun owner. Why, most of us have never even killed anyone. Amazing, I know! ;-)

That's really all I was trying to say. Hope that clears things up. If not, well, as I said before, "whatever."

Delmonti said...

I think Richard Herring is on this Saturday at the Bearcat Club in Twickers.

It should be good, you can drink, have a laugh and the chances of being shot at are very low indeed.

petercmoore said...

We probably won't make it. The usual excuses: laziness, football on the telly, etc.

We were planning on going to see Herring in Aldershot (only a 5 minute walk from the new gaff!) but we're now going to a friend's birthday. Ho hum.