Guns

[Rob McCow]

Guns are everywhere. If you watch television, go to see a movie or play computer games, the chances are you'll see some form of gun before too long. They're in the news and they're in entertainment. Check out TV Tropes guide to Guns and Gunplay Tropes if you're in any doubt - http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...dGunplayTropes

We have a society where most people will see guns being used in the media on a regular basis - if not every single day of their lives.

This week a nine-year old girl shot her instructor - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28958364 - with an Uzi sub machine gun.

According to Wiki, the Uzi was invented by Uziel Gal in Israel and proved useful in clearing out bunkers in Syria. It's limited by its short range (50m) though is very effective in clearing massed personnel from confined spaces. So from a civilian viewpoint it would be pretty useless in hunting, but would have clear applications in killing 20 armed burglars on your property, or committing horrendous massacres.

Sick humour aside, to my mind there is no justifiable reason why any adult outside of the military should have licenced access to an automatic weapon. Never mind a nine year old. Hunting rifles and handguns are deadly enough.

The 'Self-defence' (Self Defense) argument is pretty flimsy. "If everyone had guns, nobody would ever shoot anybody" is as dumb as saying "Everyone has fists, so nobody ever punches anybody".

So what is the real reason why a society would put a weapon of mass-murder into the hands of a child?

[Andrew Curnow]

I haven't checked it, but assuming the contributor on the Jeremy Vine show earlier was correct in what he said, the Uzi has been banned in the UK since 1945.

IMHO there are probably two arguments here - the first is the general one, as to why your average person would want/need a gun in the house. That's doubtless a debate that rages in the US all the time.

But this particular instance, is so utterly beyond idiotic that it beggars belief. Even if we were all suddenly to agree with 50% of the US, that 'guns are good' that still falls a long way short of why a nine year old should be playing with them. And falls an even longer way short of explaining the thinking behind giving that child a powerful automatic machine gun and in some absurd way expecting her to be able to control it.

No question, an awful awful tragedy for the poor girl who will have to somehow live with this awful event. And also an awful awful tragedy for the family & friends of the guy who died. BUT, at the risk of sounding insensitive, I can't help think he was at least partly responsible for his own death.

[Stuart Wallis]

So what is the real reason why a society would put a weapon of mass-murder into the hands of a child?

The simple, only slightly flippant but nevertheless somewhat true answer is, human society is a contradiction in terms. Thou shall not kill, but people are still being murdered.

Perhaps it's not that simple, because not everyone does feel comfortable round guns - I once fired an air pistol under controlled circumstances and immediately, and still do feel upset that I fired a gun. It does also worry that religions that teach that life is sacrosanct have adherents who use the same religion to bypass that very rule as an excuse to blow AN Other to bits. The existance of "society" suggests a degree of evolution - but have we evolved as far as we'd have liked?

[Perry Vale]

So what is the real reason why a society would put a weapon of mass-murder into the hands of a child?

A child, god knows? As for 'the people', it should be fairly easy to understand, imo.

"Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty." - John Basil Barnhill

The Second Ammedment of the US Constitution was created with exactly this in mind, and the recent events in Ferugson (and many, many others) shows how prescient these people were to write it in to law.

Of course it's too ****ing late now, as the police force has been completely militarised, making gun ownership as useful as holding peashooters.

[Rob McCow]

A battle-harden squad of 7-10 year old children storm the White House demanding liberty, equality and their mummies!

Sounds like an art-house movie.

[Stuart Wallis]

Now if they wanted to have a horror film featuring Egyptian archaeologists and the British Museum...