[John Williamson]

Bill Graham wrote:
Guns and gun laws
As a practical matter, I need a gun to protect me from not only a
knife, but nothing but the bare hands of any 20 year old. I am 75,
overweight, arthritic and half blind. (I don't drive at night) So, it
wouldn't matter t5o me whether the muggers carried a gun or not. I
would be just as vulnerable, whether in England or the United States.
I thought I had made that point when I told you they were called,
"equalizers". But, if your criminals don't carry guns, that's great,
and I hoope it continues into the future. Here, however, many do
carry them, and for sure I intend to carry mine as long as I have
some use for it. I don't intend to travel to Europe again. I was
there in the 80's and I carried my gun there too. It was the last
thing I packed before I left, and the first thing I put back in my
pocket as soon as I arrived. As a matter of fact, I got it out of my
luggage at the airport turntable and carried it all over Western
Europe. In those days, they didn't x-ray your luggage. I wouldn't
travel anywhere on an airplane today. The idiot liberals have ruined
any chance of that.

Why? Air travel is by far the safest way to travel long distances. It's
safer now than it was in the 1980s, too, if you check the figures.

Oh. And another thing. I hate unenforceqable laws. Even if there were no
criminals on earth, and I never had any use for a gun, I would still
carry one just because it is against the law and they can't tell whether
I've got it or not. IOW, it is an unenforceable law, and I am duty bound
to break unenforceable laws. So, I have to carry one whether I like it
or not.

No you don't, you *choose* to be a lawbreaker and carry a gun. And the
only thing forcing you to break *any* law is you, there is no such duty
written down anywhere that I am aware of outside works of fiction.

Unenforceable laws are a class of "bad" laws, and Spencer Tracy,
in, "Judgement at Nuremburg, said, "It is the responsibility, and not
the right, of good men to break bad laws."

You would base your moral code on the words of an actor, spoken at the
request of a Film Director, written by a scriptwriter at the request of
a Film Producer with an axe to grind, then? Or did that particular work
of fiction just happen to agree with your prejudices?

You seem to have more respect for the criminals' right to kill me than
my right to a peaceful life. That says a lot about your attitude. Laws
here prohibiting the carrying of guns are enforceable and enforced, by
and large. In general, laws here are obeyed for the reason that people
see the benefit of a law-abiding society, not because the Government and
their supporters act as thugs. If there's a bad law, we are obliged to
get it changed by due process in Parliament, not by breaking it so often
that the authorities just ignore it. We have no written Constitution or
Bill of Rights, yet our legal system has been fairly stable for
Centuries longer than the USA has existed, and you borrowed most of your
laws from us in the first place.

When's the last time you forgot to lock your front door and didn't worry
about the fact? I remembered that I'd left mine unlocked a couple of
weeks ago while I was shopping, but didn't worry about either being
robbed or finding someone in my home who wanted to shoot me when I got
back an hour or so later. I'll bet you lock your car doors when you're
driving round, too. I don't, except in modern cars that do it
automatically once you go faster than walking pace. Nor does my 82 year
old Mother. She doesn't even carry Mace in her handbag (Purse, to
you...). Nor does anybody I know.

I've never walked through a metal detector then been searched, at the
entrance to a shopping mall, either, since I visited South Africa. It
turned out, by the way, that I had too many keys in my front right hand
pocket. The stainless steel general purpose knife in my left hand front
pocket got missed totally.

Normal service will now be resumed.

I would describe the noise of a (laser) pickup finding a dust particle
in a vinyl record groove as a click, not a tick (As made by a cheap
clock) or tic (As manifesting itself on my face on hearing some Pub band
mangling Stairway To Heaven. Again.).

Just my two penn'orth.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.