It’s amazing how lying in the bath can make your thoughts wonder. It didn’t help that I’d been reading a Clarke/Kube McDowell book which was built upon the issue of gun control (amongst other issues). But it suddenly popped into my mind that gun control is a complete sideline, an obstruction of the real issue. Silly of me not to see this before, but better late than never.
It’s a favourite of the gun lobby to point out that the homicide rate in the European controls with gun control is above those in Europe without. Which doesn’t directly explain why the US still leads the world in homicides. Until you realise those European countries leading the table also are the ones with comprehensive social programmes and bans on such anachronisms as smacking children. And so one must come to the conclusion – could it just be they’re more civilised than us?
It’s hard enough for many Europeans/Australians/Kiwis to relate to the gun debate to begin with. After all, the though of needing a gun for protection is anathema to me. So perhaps it’s just a matter of taming people, removing the insecurity that demands the accessible power of the firearm and building the community that can work together to make it a non-issue.
Of course then we come back to the core point – how do you tame people? By taking away their guns. Ouroboros incarnate.
