although I know many people would disagree with me. There are people here in Downunder who would like to see the same sort of gun ownership as there is in the United States. They would give you the same sort of reasons too - "safety", "self-defence", "terrorism" and more.
Guns don't make people safe.
I can still remember how shocked we children were when we went on a trip interstate with our parents. In a small country town we stopped to get that day's supply of food and a police officer came into the shop - wearing a gun.
Police officers in our state didn't wear guns then. We knew farmers had guns - mostly used for putting injured animals out of distress and for the purpose of "spotlighting" or "rooing" (hunting kangaroos at night because they were/are seen as vermin). My brother had reluctantly held an air-rifle - and refused to shoot it - but the rest of us had kept even further away from guns. The Senior Cat is, as I have said elsewhere, almost a pacifist. He loathes weapons. He has brought us up the same way.
Seeing the police officer wearing a gun was an eye-opener for us.
I didn't feel comfortable.
Since then of course our police officers have started to carry a fire arm as part of their uniform "gear". I hope I never see one being used. I haven't felt comfortable when they have come into the house wearing their weapons - as one frequently did when he was getting the Senior Cat to make him some conjuring apparatus.
I don't know what the situation is now in England but, when I was there, the London "bobbies" were armed with no more than a baton. I imagine it is different now - and much more dangerous because of it.
John Howard, a former Prime Minister here in Downunder, did the country an enormous favour when he tightened gun control laws after the infamous "Port Arthur Massacre" - the only event on our soil to even begin to equate with what is becoming far too common in America.
Of course the laws he helped to bring in won't stop someone determined on mayhem and the destruction of as many lives as possible but they have reduced the potential harm with respect to gun violence. That can only be good.
I want the next generation to grow up feeling as "safe" as they can in the world they live in. I don't want them to be like so many young American children who are fearful of the possibility of a gun attack - and who believe that they need a gun in order to protect themselves.
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3 comments:
In the most recent piece of horror, the theory that a good man with a gun can stop a bad man with a gun would have not have helped. Thirty or more floors up behind a broken window, he was not going to be stopped.
That said, there are so many guns and so many people who feel entitled to carry one in the States that I struggle to figure out where anyone who wants to improve the situation would start. Can a solution be found? I wish it could.
No. Part of the problem was that he had access to weapons that allowed him to fire multiple times very rapidly - and that he had further modified at least one of those weapons to further enhance that capacity. Howard's approach was to ban those sort of weapons and, while it doesn't stop gun violence, it has reduced the capacity for people to commit mass murder by assault rifles very rapidly. I won't say it couldn't happen but anything that reduces the possibility has surely to be a good thing.
I am not sure whether you are familiar with the blog "Araignee's Tangled Web" (A blog about knitting etc.) but this week Araignee has shared a very personal story which highlights what can happen when the arsenal stored in a family home collides with the onset of dementia. It is a very scary and disturbing account. When you consider how commonplace it seems to be for Americans to keep weaponry around the house as a matter of course, it becomes very scary indeed.
The piece can be found here: http://araigneestangledweb.blogspot.com.au/2017/10/there-by-grace-of-god.html
Sadly, I could immediately draw a parallel to recent experience in Australia. With, Araignee's experience, a whole new set of questions arise around healthcare and aged care. My American friends report scaling back of health services, community services etc. and it makes me wonder about the effects in the context of a gun culture.
I am so thankful that we had strong leadership to tackle gun control. Even though our laws are strict, we still need to be vigilant around illegal imports and new technologies (like 3D printing) that could facilitate a resurgence in gun numbers and gun crime but I sincerely believe that the gun laws are just a first step to a safer society and perhaps even a band aid for more profound social problems.
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