The old saying is that nothing is so dangerous as ignorance. But with Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, we have an ignorant idiot who is also armed.
In todays Telegraph, he is quoted as saying “We don’t want America to become like England, where some of that nation’s outstanding rifle competitors keep their hobby a dark secret from their neighbours for fear of social disapproval,” said Mr LaPierre. “We’re not going to let the anti-gunners push us into that zone.”
We’ll leave aside the fact that the head of British Shooting described his statements as “absolute rubbish”. Why is it that whenever the NRA come under fire for their moronic, pathetic defence of the age old right for patriotic Americans to be easily able to kill children using assault rifles, they point to the UK as justification? Why us? It is, of course, a useful indicator of their sheer, planet-sized ignorance that they refuse to this place as “England” when they mean “the United Kingdom”. The UK is a slightly complex beast, being made up of four countries (depending on your point of view) but the overall concept is fairly simple to explain and understand. A five year old could grasp the concept, unless they have just been shot in the face by someone who has exercised their Constitutional right to walk into a primary school loaded down like Rambo. It is, of course, beyond the understanding of the head of the National Rifle Association, but then, that level of stupidity comes with the job.
After Sandy Hook, we had the age old discussion about gun control. The NRA fell back to its usual standbys, blaming Hollywood, videogames, Obama, little green men etc. Falling back on power fantasises about killing burglars in their homes (ask Oscar Pistorius how that one turned out). They also said that the immediate aftermath of the tragedy was not the time to have this discussion on gun control.
At the time of writing, since Sandy Hook which happened in mid-December, 1852 Americans have been killed by guns. (This site keeps a live tally.) So, about 30 deaths a day since Sandy Hook. One every 48 minutes or. It would seem at first glance, that if we were to take the NRA line that “now is not the time for discussion” then,with one death every 48 minutes, there never will be a time for discussion. Then I had a thought.
If you support the current state of gun control in the United States then you support the killing of children. You believe that 20 dead kids is a reasonable price for your own personal freedom to pretend that you can freely take another life without consequence. Ordinary US citizens have proved, time and time again, that they can’t be trusted not to go out and shoot up schools and shopping malls. When a five year old misbehaves, you take their favourite toy away from them until they learn to behave properly. Yet you don’t think this is the case for gun owners. The right to carry a gun stops at the right to shoot someone else in the face. You want to protect your Second Amendment rights? Well, it says you have to be part of a well-regulated militia, so go off and join the Army. If you want a gun, be a soldier. The moment you stop being a soldier, you lose the gun. You want to go hunting, hunt bear. Not something that couldn’t hurt if there were ten thousand simultaneously flying at you – like quail or duck. (I mean, seriously, you are hunting a duck? What is it going to do, use its bill to suck you to death?) Oh and you can’t drive to it and blast away – you want to hunt, then we’ll drop you in the middle of the Oregon forest to do so. If you want to use a statistic in favour of less gun control and it is wrong, you lose, automatically. Debate is not shouting louder than your opponent. If you manage to make Piers Morgan look reasonable and rational, then you are clearly on the wrong side of the issue. Every single one of the current arguments on gun control are based on a) money, b) pathetic power fantasies, c) rampant selfishness and d) a child-like tantrum that the “wrong” President got elected by the “wrong type” of people. And yes, I do know what you are saying when you say that.
Discussion over. 48 minutes? More like 48 seconds.
Out of My Tiny Mind 