ted@imsvax.UUCP (Ted Holden) (07/11/86)
Peter Kendell (STC Telecoms) writes: >In article <874@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP writes: >>Does someone "absolutely need a gun"? Ask my friends. 1) Stabbed seven >>times by burglars who broke into their house, and tried to rape his >>wife......... [ and more American urban fun and games ]..... >>No, I guess there's really no need for self-defense. > A counter-example: John Shorthouse, 5 years, shot at > point-blank range by PC Brian Chester, 35 years, in > Birmingham last year during a house search. > The policeman was tried for manslaughter and acquitted last > week. Justly, because he was not acting negligently. > What does this show? That even a highly trained, > mature, policeman can make a fatal mistake with a firearm. > British policemen have to take special training courses > before they are allowed to be issued with weapons. > If such a mistake can be made by such a person, what about > Tom, Dick or Harry (or Clayton E.)? What are you trying to prove? > If you are arguing that we are in some way less `free' > because we have to show society a very good reason why we > want to own firearms, well maybe we are. But your list of > atrocities above shows that you are less `free' in a much > more significant way. The sort of crimes you describe make > *headlines* over here. They seem to be routine where you > live. > If you've let the genie out of the bottle and can't get it > back in, you have my sympathy. But don't expect us to make > the same mistakes as you. A bumper sticker often seen on red-neck pick-up trucks in America reads: "When Guns are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will have Guns" Which isn't altogether true; the government will still have guns also. We pay a fearful price here in America for the right to bear arms, which we insist on keeping, and our crime rates are indeed ridiculous by the standards of Germany, Japan, Russia, and numerous other countries I could as easily mention. But there is one kind of headline which you will never read in America: "Stalin Takes Over in Washington, Congress Disbanded!" "Hitler Takes Over in America, Nazis Rule!" "Tojo Coup Successful, Democrats Being Rounded Up!" Crimes in England, while few by American standards, tend to be spectacular from what I read. And, contrary to what Mr. Kendall is claiming, the one thing the British have done altogether right, at least in the past (I couldn't totally vouch for what's happening there right now), is NOT to grant headline status to the idiots who commit them. The following short news item, which I memorized, once was printed in the back pages of the second section of the London Times: "Seven totally dismembered bodies and a bloody axe have been found in a backyard in Soho. Foul play is suspected. A man has been detained." Granted, murders would make headlines in the British tabloid press, but appearing under such other important headlines as: "John McEnroe now sleeping with .......", nobody would take them too seriously. Now, if we could only get our press to treat Khadaffi and Khomeini like that....