Lock, Stock

[burntcopper]

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.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

I swear your coppers are the only ones I ever saw who were genuinely hot attractive friendly.
But sadly no amount of statistics will change the scary gun lobby thing in America.

[juleskicks.livejournal.com]

See, this is one of those cultural-gap things, I think -- judging from what you've written, the mindset and the cultural expectations and traditions are just completely different. There's a fabulous Simpsons episode about gun control which includes the line "if I didn't have this gun, the King of England could walk right through that door and start pushing you around", and that's pretty much what it's about.

The Second Amendment is very much a remnant of the Revolutionary period and the colonization in general, when it wasn't unreasonable for people living on the frontiers, at least (and remember, the 'frontier' was only about fifty miles from 'civilization' at that point; expansion past the Appalachians didn't really get serious until the nineteenth century) to need a gun. Especially as we had to start complaining that England's economy might be threatened before they'd send people to protect us, most of the time. *g* Add in the Puritan Work Ethic and basically, the reason we're never going to get rid of guns -- or at least, not anytime soon -- is the same as the reason it's going to be a long time before we have anything like socialized healthcare: the attitude of 'you've got to take care of yourself' is just too deeply ingrained. The fact that there's really only one type of animal most gun owners are going to be hunting, and it's not one with four legs, is sadly irreleveant.

...and that, children, is one more reason why I want to emigrate. *laugh*

[aqua-eyes.livejournal.com]

Did you ever see Bowling for Columbine? A bank was giving out free guns for if you got a bank account with them.

I live in a rural area. Me mam was thinking of getting an airriffle for the OODLES of rabbits we get. But our land is surrounded by public footpaths behind trees. Although the fact we have so many rabbits is because of the sodding farmers shotting every predators, even the endangered ones. Poachers are also a problem if they bring a gun with them... We do let some friends ferret. They have a big red jeep + dog thing on the back. Of course the police knock on the door just to make sure I have noticed this beast parked in front of the house and that they are ferreting on our land. Lol.