Guns Again and Stem Cell Research.
This time, it's Germany that has reminded the world why letting people have guns is stupid.
Once again, we can see what people with guns do to the people around them. The latest mass murderer is a 17 year old whose father had a gun collection at home. As far as I am concerned, his parents are almost as responsible as he is and both should be in prison. If you bring up a child to think guns are a normal part of life, of course he is likely to shoot someone at some point.
Now, a lot of people are dead, including the gun owner's own son, simply because he felt the need to fill the house with penis substitutes. If you're not a man without a gun, you won't be one with one. Nothing more unmans a man than needing to hide behind a gun.
Most people killed by guns in the US are killed by a gun that was kept in their home. Virtually all school massacres (in fact, all that I have heard of) were carried out with guns legally owned by the murderer or his family. Allowing ordinary members of the public to hold guns is saying that lives are expendable, because no-one keeps a gun and ammunition without having the desire on some level to kill someone.
It always baffles me that there is no legal right to own a guillotine, bomb or garrotte. All three are, like guns, intended solely to kill somebody else, yet all three are illegal. Maybe killing your neighbours is fine as long as you do it quickly (but the guillotine is generally quicker than the gun).
I will never forget Dunblane, Britain's terrible school massacre. There too, the right of a loony to bear arms was placed above the rights of children not to be shot. Immediately after it, the law on guns changed dramatically and there has never been another incident of the kind.
In America, no massacre affects the gun laws, so they happen far too often.
Germany is, in many ways, ahead of Britain and America. I hope they have the good sense now to ban private ownership of guns. I suspect they will. This tragedy has shocked them.
In other news, Barack Obama is backing stem-cell research carried out using human embryos. I had hoped I was wrong about him, but when I heard him say that ethics had no place in science, I knew he was every bit as bad as I feared. The man has no concept of right and wrong.
Incidentally, before anyone lectures me on the benefits of stem-cell research, I have no problem with research on adult cells. My problem is with using babies (and, of course, with animal testing).
My brother has diabetes. He was asked if, should treatments become available, he would like stem-cell treatments that could cure his condition. He said no, on ethical grounds. I'm very proud of him.
Once again, we can see what people with guns do to the people around them. The latest mass murderer is a 17 year old whose father had a gun collection at home. As far as I am concerned, his parents are almost as responsible as he is and both should be in prison. If you bring up a child to think guns are a normal part of life, of course he is likely to shoot someone at some point.
Now, a lot of people are dead, including the gun owner's own son, simply because he felt the need to fill the house with penis substitutes. If you're not a man without a gun, you won't be one with one. Nothing more unmans a man than needing to hide behind a gun.
Most people killed by guns in the US are killed by a gun that was kept in their home. Virtually all school massacres (in fact, all that I have heard of) were carried out with guns legally owned by the murderer or his family. Allowing ordinary members of the public to hold guns is saying that lives are expendable, because no-one keeps a gun and ammunition without having the desire on some level to kill someone.
It always baffles me that there is no legal right to own a guillotine, bomb or garrotte. All three are, like guns, intended solely to kill somebody else, yet all three are illegal. Maybe killing your neighbours is fine as long as you do it quickly (but the guillotine is generally quicker than the gun).
I will never forget Dunblane, Britain's terrible school massacre. There too, the right of a loony to bear arms was placed above the rights of children not to be shot. Immediately after it, the law on guns changed dramatically and there has never been another incident of the kind.
In America, no massacre affects the gun laws, so they happen far too often.
Germany is, in many ways, ahead of Britain and America. I hope they have the good sense now to ban private ownership of guns. I suspect they will. This tragedy has shocked them.
In other news, Barack Obama is backing stem-cell research carried out using human embryos. I had hoped I was wrong about him, but when I heard him say that ethics had no place in science, I knew he was every bit as bad as I feared. The man has no concept of right and wrong.
Incidentally, before anyone lectures me on the benefits of stem-cell research, I have no problem with research on adult cells. My problem is with using babies (and, of course, with animal testing).
My brother has diabetes. He was asked if, should treatments become available, he would like stem-cell treatments that could cure his condition. He said no, on ethical grounds. I'm very proud of him.