Parting Shot

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I make no apologies for the passion in this discussion. If it offends then that is good because it means that you have at least thought about what I have written below. No doubt I will be flamed, told to butt out, 'people kill guns don't' (yawn) etc. But frankly I do not care. Never have I felt so strongly about a subject. I have little time for people that own guns 'because they can'. They strike me as dull witted and immature. I have seen acres of print devoted to how the imposition of gun control on Americans is unconstitutional, undermines their rights and denies them the freedom to protect themselves from attack....by their own Government even. YouTube bristles with folk having 'fun' with their guns and as there are guns for nearly 9 out of 10 US citizens clearly the market is a strong one. However, let's be clear, being on the receiving end of a bullet is never pleasant and in the past three weeks almost 30 internationally reported cases of private guns being used to murder innocents has been reported. Merry Christmas indeed. To put the gun murders a year into perspective, the total number of people killed every year by guns in the US is about the same as the population of Annapolis! A whole small city. The demand for guns in the US has risen as a frightened public, encouraged by the NRA, clamours for more guns to protect themselves against a threat that is caused in the main by legally held weapons that find themselves in the hands of crazies, the lonely and the suicidal. In Utah teachers have been given lessons on carrying and using weapons if threatened in the classroom. Imagine the carnage as a frightened, barely trained teacher, who has forgotten most of what they were taught anyway, clumsily draws their gun and fires hopefully at the assailant. Another bloodbath. In some countries, graphic photographs of cancers are being put on cigarette cartons; perhaps pictures of shot children should be placed on gun stores. Every gun has the potential to kill if placed in the wrong hands. Even the safest stored gun can be misused and having one in the home together with ammunition makes that a possibility. Every gun surrendered is a gun that will not be used offensively. Think that it couldn't happen to you. That's what Mrs Lanza thought! Rant over...flame away.