Lock, Stock
Last night, was idly reading jennyo's lj (yes, I know, I was being masochistic) disagreeing with her view on most tv shows and characters and so on as usual, and then followed a link to a discussion in someone else's blog on gun ownership. Which was... really weird. Sport vs. enjoyment vs. home defending in places where there no police to handgun vs. rifle usefulness to urban and... seriously. Weird.
Because? Yes, we in the UK have plenty of gun crime. We're quite aware of it, thankyou. But owning a gun for most people is a complete non-issue, because the only people we even expect to have guns are farmers and criminals. And re-enactors. Coppers only have them if they're part of a special ops / armed response unit. (yes, for the americans who aren't aware of this, most coppers will go their entire career without ever having handled one, let alone fired one) I know that at one point pre-WWII before guns were generally banned in public life, gun ownership per capita in the UK was actually higher than it was in the states - but these were mostly kept in people's cupboards. Plus, no mystique whatsoever about said ownership - it's not viewed as a right in any way. Sure, you get the occasional set of loud voices, like when guns were banned in the nineties, but they were in such a minority that they were perceived as a tiny fringe group. Put it like this : Nutter comes into a school in Dunblaine (it's in Scotland for those of you with dodgy geography skills) and shoots up the kids and teachers before turning it on himself. Government decides to ban guns. Entire population : 'Well of course, they're bloody dangerous! Why would you have a gun *anyway*?'
I know more people who've used a bow and arrow than have ever handled guns outside of airsoft and re-enactment.
...So, yeah, reading that blog discussion was damn weird.
Because? Yes, we in the UK have plenty of gun crime. We're quite aware of it, thankyou. But owning a gun for most people is a complete non-issue, because the only people we even expect to have guns are farmers and criminals. And re-enactors. Coppers only have them if they're part of a special ops / armed response unit. (yes, for the americans who aren't aware of this, most coppers will go their entire career without ever having handled one, let alone fired one) I know that at one point pre-WWII before guns were generally banned in public life, gun ownership per capita in the UK was actually higher than it was in the states - but these were mostly kept in people's cupboards. Plus, no mystique whatsoever about said ownership - it's not viewed as a right in any way. Sure, you get the occasional set of loud voices, like when guns were banned in the nineties, but they were in such a minority that they were perceived as a tiny fringe group. Put it like this : Nutter comes into a school in Dunblaine (it's in Scotland for those of you with dodgy geography skills) and shoots up the kids and teachers before turning it on himself. Government decides to ban guns. Entire population : 'Well of course, they're bloody dangerous! Why would you have a gun *anyway*?'
I know more people who've used a bow and arrow than have ever handled guns outside of airsoft and re-enactment.
...So, yeah, reading that blog discussion was damn weird.