I thought a lot before writing this post. I thought about not writing it at all. I thought there were so many articles, comments, stories, interviews and opinions floating around on what happened last Friday in Connecticut, that one more was superfluous.
So, I'm not going to offer another opinion, just a few facts.
It is easier to buy a gun legally in the US than it is to adopt a dog. In many states there are no background checks, no licenses or permits required and no waiting periods.
When I adopted my dogs, in both instances there were lengthy adoption forms with questions about my house, where the dogs would sleep, how much exercise they would have, whether I had a fenced yard and what I would do if the dog got sick. There was also a clause that said a home inspection would be required. All of this I willingly accepted, to bring a living animal into my home. Imagine a system like this before someone is allowed to purchase a gun.
Unfortunately though, many shootings happen with guns that are not registered to the person firing them, rather someone in their immediate family, or close to them. So even if you do get past the first layer of being able to purchase the gun, purely by having it in the house and having family members know where it is and how to use it, a problem could arise.
Hunters don't go on killing sprees. People who keep shotguns to hunt deer and other animals are not the target (no pun intended) here. You don't need a semi-automatic weapon to kill a deer.
Shootings like the one in CT just don't happen very often in Britain, where gun laws are much tighter and gun ownership is minimal. The police in Britain don't even carry guns. And yes, I know horrible events like Dunblane in 1996, Hungerford in 1987 and more recently Cumbria in 2010, happen. Thankfully, they are so rare that in mentioning these three events, I think I've covered every mass shooting by individuals in the UK in literally 200 years.
Anyway, I think that at this moment, eight days before Christmas, we would do better to remember the immortal words of Hugh Grant as Prime Minister, at the beginning of Love Actually. Yes, I really just needed an excuse to quote one of my favorite holiday movies:
Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around.
Peace.
So, I'm not going to offer another opinion, just a few facts.
It is easier to buy a gun legally in the US than it is to adopt a dog. In many states there are no background checks, no licenses or permits required and no waiting periods.
When I adopted my dogs, in both instances there were lengthy adoption forms with questions about my house, where the dogs would sleep, how much exercise they would have, whether I had a fenced yard and what I would do if the dog got sick. There was also a clause that said a home inspection would be required. All of this I willingly accepted, to bring a living animal into my home. Imagine a system like this before someone is allowed to purchase a gun.
Unfortunately though, many shootings happen with guns that are not registered to the person firing them, rather someone in their immediate family, or close to them. So even if you do get past the first layer of being able to purchase the gun, purely by having it in the house and having family members know where it is and how to use it, a problem could arise.
Hunters don't go on killing sprees. People who keep shotguns to hunt deer and other animals are not the target (no pun intended) here. You don't need a semi-automatic weapon to kill a deer.
Shootings like the one in CT just don't happen very often in Britain, where gun laws are much tighter and gun ownership is minimal. The police in Britain don't even carry guns. And yes, I know horrible events like Dunblane in 1996, Hungerford in 1987 and more recently Cumbria in 2010, happen. Thankfully, they are so rare that in mentioning these three events, I think I've covered every mass shooting by individuals in the UK in literally 200 years.
Anyway, I think that at this moment, eight days before Christmas, we would do better to remember the immortal words of Hugh Grant as Prime Minister, at the beginning of Love Actually. Yes, I really just needed an excuse to quote one of my favorite holiday movies:
Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around.
Peace.
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