Here we go with the media led blame mongering… “The police shouldn’t have let him have the guns in the first place”… “The police should have done a better job in catching him before he killed so many.”
That’s it, I’m so stupid! Why didn’t I arrive at this conclusion? It’s so simple… The police are at fault, again!
The tragic events in Cumbria yesterday are the third mass-shooting incident in the UK. After each of the two previous ones there was a change in our gun laws which subsequently led to greater restrictions on legally held firearms. After Hungerford the ownership of automatic weapons was banned but it didn’t stop Dunblane. Then we saw the ban on all handguns but this didn’t stop the events of yesterday. Will further changes in the law make a difference in the future?
Today the Prime Minister said that the UK has some of the most stringent firearms laws in the world and, “you can’t legislate for a switch in someone’s head” and, the Home Secretary Teresa May has said the government will “consider all the options” over gun laws after the Cumbria incident. (BBC News)
She told MPs it was “right and proper” to have a debate after the killings but warned it would be “wrong to react before we know the full facts”… Having a ‘debate’ is probably right however, unless she stands by the second quote, there is the danger of the usual knee jerk reaction in light of media fuelled and frenzied public outrage. She also went on to say… “Where there are lessons to be learned, we will learn them. Where there are changes to be made, we will make them.”
So what is the answer? Perhaps the government should ban the public ownership of any firearm? The PM has already alluded to the fact we have the most comprehensive and strictly applied gun laws of any civilised nation in the world (apart from Japan apparently). The answer is not always making another law; a methodology that some would say, was the undoing of the last UK administration. Just hastily passing a new law is little more than public appeasement and platitude.
Everyday in this country around 7 people are killed and a further 77 are seriously maimed by members of the public using one of the 32m legally owned and used lethal weapons! Do we throw our arms skyward in dismay and call for a ban on the motorcar?
You can’t legislate for mental illness (which Mr Bird must have been suffering from in some way), like suicide the actions and events of yesterday can hardly be attributed to a sane person! And just as importantly, sometimes there really is no one else to blame for events, no matter how hard you try! And, how many of those throwing mud and trying to make it stick would have been happy to go searching for a mad crazed gunman who has already killed? How about giving the police a break for once?
You were happy enough for them to be away from their families for 15+ hour days a couple of months ago when they were pulling you out of the floods and helping you to save your property, now you want to blame them for mass murder?
I really can’t understand the mentality of my fellow-man sometimes?
Note: May I express my genuine sympathy and condolences to all those who lost loved ones in the tragic events of yesterday. May your family, your friends and your god provide you with the strength you need to deal with your loss.
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