Thursday 6 December 2007

Nutters

America - Land of the Free, home of the Nutter with a gun.

Every country has nutters (England included).
I encountered 2 yesterday on a visit to the local bank, one old man who because he was asked to wait started swearing at everyone before storming out.
Also a middle aged woman who despite the cold and rain, was stood at the counter in a way too short mini skirt and high heels trying to look like a teenager despite being the wrong side of forty.
While shouting at the cashier (after being told she only had a tenner in her account) she repeatedly let everyone know that she should have more money because her mental health councillor had told her it would be in her account.
"I'm not gonna kick off, so there's no need to call the police" she shouted about 10 times.

The difference with British nutters is that in 99.99% of times they aren't carrying an automatic pistol or high powered rifle due to the gun laws, I'm sure that she would have shot the cashier (and a few others) if she had.
Most British nutters are harmless, the main exception being the drunken nutters after a night out although even the majority are not armed apart from the odd knife or baseball bat (another American influence).
We do have a growing gun problem but on the whole it is confined to inner city drug gang areas, although I imagine it will get worse until the government / police adopt a zero tolerance policy with anyone carrying a gun facing a proper life sentence or being legally shot by armed police.

America's "right to bear arms" a line taken out of context from the 2nd amendment to the American constitution (which is an ever changing document) seems to be used as the excuse by all the nutters in the NRA and other pro-gun groups to justify their ownership of enough firepower to fight a war.
It's like all the religious nutters always quote passages from their various holy books to justify murder, terrorism etc despite all religions having the non negotiable "thou shalt not kill" as one of the basic rules.

So another 9 dead yesterday after another American teenager decides to "end it all" while ending it all for more innocents, bringing the total to about 50 people dead from the 3 high profile incidents this year.
What shouldn't be overlooked that over 25,000 people die and over 60,000 people are injured every year in the US by firearms, not all are caused by criminal activities there are a fair number of suicides and accidents.
America (Bush) went to war over the death of less than 3,000 people in the "911" tragedy but every year nearly ten times as many Americans are killed by Americans.
Surely the ability of American people to live in safety would be better served by bringing his troops home and having them stationed in America dis-arming his own people, instead of sending his troops to all parts of the world stirring up even more hatred of his country and making America the preferred target of all extremists in the world.

2 comments:

Nuzz Prowlin' Wolf said...

more great stuff Lee, top blog.

Anonymous said...

Instead of "the right to bear arms", why don't these people consider thinking about people's right to leave peacefully & not need to bear arms? the right "not to bear arms".

How can there by any respect for life when you have a gun in your possession? Carrying or owning a gun to protect yourself is an acceptance of violence, not a challenge to it.

The US fosters a society where violence is not only tolerated, it is practically encouraged. It's difficult to see how a population can be expected to behave responsibly when it is raised on violence.