Gun Lobby (23/10/13)
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.
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.
