Browsing the BBC
Finland moves to tighten gun laws
I don't disagree with their proposed legislation. Why should a 15-year old be allowed to purchase and license her or his own gun? But if only 14% of all homicide is gun related, and they have the 3rd highest per capita gun ownership in the world (according to a BBC stat, 56 guns per 100 people), they must be doing something right.
Really, my question is about their logic. If the student was 18, how does preventing minors from owning guns solve the problem? Even retroactively, he would have had legal opportunity to purchase and use the weaponry. I'm not familiar with Finish crime rates, but because they don't mention a large incidence of 16-year olds shooting people, I imagine that population isn't a particular problem unless otherwise severely provoked. Why not deal with bullying?
EU far-right bloc faces collapse
I suppose it's my own prejudice that isn't surprised that Mussolini's grand-daughter is being accused of xenophobic remarks. I'm more saddened however by the Romanians' apparent shortsightedness. They are upset that they were compared to the despised Roma (gypsies), which is almost exactly like calling a male a "fag" or "girl" (or calling a Latino an "illegal alien"). And instead of questioning why being nonheteronormative or being female is something horrible, we question the comparison. How dare you compare me to them! But isn't that just furthering the problem? If you allow for anyone to be put down based on social categorization, you're not dealing with the root issue (yes, males and females are biologically different, but why one would respond in disgust to being called the other isn't based in biology but in society). Why do we value idealized masculinity? Why is anyone better than a Roma?
"The Greater Romania party has itself campaigned on a fiercely nationalistic, anti-Roma platform."
Why expect the Italians to behave any differently? If you encourage xenophobia, there's not much room to complain when the system turns against you. "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" (MLKJ).* When society changes the ideal, and inevitably it will, you may be the next target. If nothing else, protecting the least in society is prescient self-preservation.
*Have you ever noticed that MLKJ backwards is alphabetical?