There has been this horrific shooting in Virginia, and over here its been widely suggested that the US's Culture of Gun ownership and worship is to blame. The most common idea is the US goverment should adopt the approach to the British and Austrailian goverments when similar incidents occured, and pass much tighter firearms laws. It seems unlikely that Bush or Congress will attempt to do so, but if they were interested, they might have a look at how well bans have worked in the UK.
They would note that firearms offenses here have climbed steadily, reguardless of the ban. They would note that the normally unarmed british police have taken to carrying guns normally. And they might well conclude that a ban is pointless.
Of course, shootings in the states are far more common. Of course, tightening up the laws over there is a good thing. However, us Brits should get our act together and deal with our local gun problem before offering advice to the States. After all, its only when we have dealt with it we will know if our advice works.
posted at: 10:30 | path: /life | permanent link to this entry