> Charlie Stross [charlie@antipope.org] also wrote:
<SNIP>
Remember the Dunblane massacre in Scotland where so many infants were shot and killed? After that there was an uproar and the government acted on it. Now the UK has probably the toughest gun laws on the planet. Freedom? Despite these laws, we are not any less free than those in the US. We're just free without worrying so much whether our kids will be shot to death at school or whether a burglar will easily shoot us to death when they break into our homes.
In the UK, when crimes involve guns special police units take care of it. You see, in the UK they actually employ police officers that are trained for those situations. Unlike in the US where people obviously have so little faith in the law enforcement agencies that they feel they must deal death themselves. As for protecting yourself, chances are, in a situation where they police don't have time to respond, you'd probably be dead anyway before you have a chance to brand your gun and do that bit of shooting which people are just dying to do (no pun intended). Is that a wrong perspective? Well, then why dictate you need a gun to 'defend' yourself, what else do you plan on doing with a gun?
Rick