Still trying to get my head around breaking news of the biker shoot-out in Texas. Someone will be making a note of the casualty figures. All we need now is for some hero to start reminding us how the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution allows (as a divine right) something which was originally intended to let the militia carry muskets.
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| Waco - how aptly named |
They got it wrong:
ReplyDeleteIt's actually the right to keep and arm bears...(you know it makes sense!)
That's right. It's at times like this that we really miss Charlton Heston.
DeleteBut he was rather good as the barking, if rather magnificent, Chinese Gordon facing down the screaming Islamist hordes. No change there either. It's a pity that all these chappies don't have HOBBIES.
DeleteAmericans will argue that the genie is out of the bottle, and there is no way back. There must be something they can do. A change in the law with an amnesty period would be a start - all known, licensed guns to be surrendered within x months, only police and other peopel with a good reason to have them. Thereafter anyone in possession of an unlicensed weapon is assumed to be intending to use it, and penalties should be commensurate. I realise this is a puerile scrobble on my part, but they can't just let the whole place go to hell because some guys happen to feel more manly with a lethal weapon handy.
DeleteShocking.
ReplyDeleteOf course the wingnuts will also assert that changing the gun laws "won't keep guns out of the hands of criminals". This is tosh. In 1984 groups of Bandidos and Comancheros got into a gunfight on the outskirts of Sydney, at a place called Milperra. One of the reasons for the scale of the gun violence was that the laws of the day made it very easy for the bikers to legally register shotguns and carry them openly. Straight afterwards the laws were amended to ban open carrying, and to require "a good reason" for requiring a gun license (a farmer or sporting shooter for example), as well as strict rules for the transport of firearms (so they are not visible or readily-accessible). Since then criminals struggle to get firearms licenses and can be stopped, searched and prosecuted easily if they even thought to be violating these laws. There are still gun crimes committed by bikies, but never while they are simply riding around in packs like these animals.
Read more about the Milperra Massacre on the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milperra_massacre
And to finish, like the news, on a lighter note: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0Wn3Eey6dY
On one of my US musical trips years ago I was introduced to Cammy, who was a banjo player but also collected guns as a pastime. He had an armoured compound and shooting range out in the California desert, and some of his weaponry was automatic stuff of military quality. He invited a group of us out there for a beer, and I have never been so scared and depressed in my life. He was licensed as a hobby deer hunter, but some of his "hunting" weapons would have reduced an adult deer to mince. Why was he allowed to have them? - he was absolutely as crazy as a drawer full of grasshoppers - when he fired these things I swear he had orgasms. In reality, as he said over our "relaxed" beer, he had them in case any black chaps tried to take away any of his belongings. Certifiable. Very small willie indeed, I would guess.
DeleteAargh.
And that's the nub of it. The gun culture feeds off and feeds paranoia, in particular fear of people of colour, fear of one's own government, fear of difference. It is also an element of a cultural trend of "opting out", refusing to cooperate with others dressed up as rugged individualism. In my book real men go into world armed only with a strong will and with their hands empty so they can offer them to others. These wingnuts are, to a man (and woman), weak in every sense.
DeleteThe solution is to take their guns away and make them all ware T-shirts...I'll get me coat!
ReplyDeleteHugh - I'm determined to understand this - forgive me if I am being even dumber than usual...
DeleteSo you can see the guns more easily? Like you.. mystified....
DeleteEither way, I have worked for American Corporations all my life, and nothing is going to change my view that 99.9% of all Americans are in fact 18 stone toddlers, with all the "subtle" maturity you get with toddlers ... I know... xenophobic... the 0.1% kid of make up for it though.....
I've known and worked with a lot of Americans. Admittedly most of those were academics, but by no means all. I've found them to be worldly, well-travelled, curious about others and much more hospitable than other cultures I've encountered (with the possible exception of the Chinese). Just like Australians, one's impression of Americans is entirely dependent on which ones you happen to meet.
DeleteBare Arms...T-Shirts...it's that level I'm afraid! I'm out'ta here!
DeleteHugh - I thank you - sincerely. I shall now be able to rest.
DeleteFour bikers were shot between the eyes, fortunately missing their brains by a good 5 feet.
ReplyDeleteIf you lived next door to Mexico you 'd have guns too. I can't imagine you walking through Luton ( or many other areas of Old Blighty at night.
ReplyDeleteMexico and Luton - it's a jungle.
DeleteI'm tempted to say something about Mexicans being the ones who might have the greater justification for paranoia about their neighbours.
DeleteNundanket - drug cartels and 43 missing students? Your naivety or chauvinism is showing.
ReplyDeleteThe Iguala kidnappings did get some mention in our chauvinistic UK press, but we tend to read more about public massacres in shopping malls, sports bars, primary schools etc, which don't seem to involve Mexicans.
DeleteDo you live in Texas and carry a gun, then? I must say that living like that would be far too stressful for me - each to his own, of course, but if I had to carry a gun to survive and to protect my family I would go and live somewhere else.
Regards - MSF
Just read Jubilo's comments again, after a few years. What a hero. If he ever comes out of his bunker he could be a menace, I guess. God bless America.
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