That has touched upon a particular bugbear of mine; I used to be a keen pistol shooter (well, all forms of shooting, but pistols especially) and was a member of a couple of clubs. Then what happened? A bunch of politically correct 'puritans' (the definition of a puritan being someone who always harbours the nagging fear that someone somewhere might be enjoying themselves) stopped at nothing to ensure that my favourite sport was branded 'evil' and had it banned. My clubs went out of business and my colleagues were forced to surrender their pistols, not a single one of them was a criminal or someone you might look sideways at on the bus and think was a bit dodgy (unlike the lunatic that caused it all in the first place).
The system of firearms licensing could have done with tightening, but instead of looking at ways to prevent future tragedies they just violated the rights of all the law-abiding citizens that enjoyed legitimate pistol shooting. Funnily enough, removing firearms from the hands of the decent law-abiding shooters of this country has *not* halted gun crime commited with unlicensed firearms illegally held by criminals. What a surprise!:shock:
Villification in the media has a huge role to play in these disgusting witch-hunts, I used to consider myself the sort of person who would step up to someone in trouble or try to help, but I dare not approach a lost child in a shopping center as I would doubtless be immediately branded a deviant.
When the streets are no longer safe to walk and no activity is permitted outside of a government monitored facility, the brainless minority responsible for identifying the glut of publicised moral outrages will look at each other (through the armoured glass of their sealed homes) and ask each other what happened.
There are no 100% certainties in this world, but to live without risk (however small) is to exist, not live.
And similarly to mr spanton, I have carried a knife since I was a small boy as it is incredibly useful, I do not tend to go around stabbing people, but I do get funny looks from otherwise intelligent people when I am able to pull out a penknife and solve a problem within seconds instead of having to run indoors and raid the kitchen for a suitable tool.
Oh good heavens, I'm going to get a reputation for rants on here aren't I? I do apologise. :roll:
Vormulac.
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