America

I’m a bit annoyed, OK. I have been opposed to USA policies and attitudes for some time.

Now 19 kids aged about 9 or 10 years old and 2 of their teachers have been killed by a nutter with an assault weapon. I see that governor Abbott is reflecting on threat-assessment measures, meaning how to defend against armed attacks on schools or other targets.

How about looking at the “Threat”? That is, the fact that anybody and everybody is armed and has the right to be armed?

I was last in USA 4 years ago and I apparently drove through a sign saying that some ramp was closed. That sign was small, the name of the ramp meant nothing to me and TomTom was telling me how to get to my hotel. A police car drew up behind me with lights flashing. I got out of the car and a threatening blast through their car loudspeaker shouted “stay in da car, stay in da car”.

I was with a lady who spoke no English and I am certain that if my skin colour had been different, I would have been in severe difficulty.

Do I want to go to a country where you never know if the person next to you is armed? Would you walk down the streets of Bradford, Bingley, Keighley if somebody told you the next person has a gun?

There are 400 million guns in USA, more than people.

This problem is now beyond being solvable. I am never going there again knowing that the person next to me may be carrying a gun. Stupid place.

 

Trump said to arm all disco/club goers with guns so they could combat any gunmen at clubs. "Boom" beautiful.

It would have been great to have gunfire randomly shooting across dancefloors.

Stupid, stupid country.

 

I've heard some fatuous arguments in favour of "constitutional rights" to gun ownership.

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people".
People use guns to kill people. Supposing they didn't have guns?

"The best way to deal with a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun".
Who says the good guy is handier with a gun than the bad guy and how is it fine to have gunfights? What about if nobody had guns?

This 2nd amendment, supposedly allowing everybody the right to bear arms, is well over 200 years old, recognises that there were soldiers as young as 18 in the revolutionary army who had to be armed as part of an organised militia, in defence of the state, using single shot muskets.
Therefore 18 year-olds are now entitled to buy AR-15 semi-automatic weapons in civil society capable of blowing the heads off other civilians, including schoolchildren, outside of war situations?

Those 18 year-olds in the 1770s were trained, vetted and part of an organised army. The average citizen is not.

Stupid, stupid country.