This issue is a tough personal one for me, I enjoyed shooting for many
years, starting when in school shooting airgun for the village team -
most teams were pub based and it was much of the pub culture as darts
and dominoes (aim generally improves with a touch of alchohol) . I then
moved on to captain the university rifle team and had full
responsibility for the armory. The people I met and knew through this
sport are normal and none of them went on to shoot anyone. I personally
enjoyed the sport because the level of concentration relaxed me.
Roll forward a few years and I am working in Scotland between and we get
a call in the office that they are frantically wanting to speak to my
boss at that time (although technically I was self employed - you always
have a boss), he was actually in Germany for a meeting, the reason they
wanted to speak to him was to tell him that his 5 year old son had been
shot and killed during the Dunblane massacre - I can only imagine what
he must have felt but I was close enough to the situation to get a
better idea than most.
I now live in Switzerland which has a very high level of gun ownership
due to military reasons, it used to be every male between 18 and 40 had
a weapon at home, there is the occasional shooting (one this week in
fact, a man kills his inlaws and brother in law and a neighbour before
killing himself - he was not swiss and used an unlicened gun, but
generally they are rare.
The point I am trying to make is that I am familiar with both sides but
I don't think you can regulate against such things - most people will
play fair but then they are at risk from a very small percentage who
don't and I have always speculated a lunatic in a car, lorry or bus
could do as much damage as someone armed, however in that case they
don't have such an easy way of committing suicide after the event, its
not the gun itself that shoots, we need to find a way of preventing
people from doing such acts which is incredibly difficult to do as
usually the perpetrator is no longer around to question - soon if not
already I expect google would be able to alert on warning signs for
people in such a mental state.
On 13/05/2015 02:54, Chris Trask wrote:
2nd amendment in action, again.
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