[Bill Graham]

John Williamson wrote:
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.

My respect is for those who chose to defend themselves over no defense at
all. Only idiots think that the police can protect them from crime. The
police can hunt down the perpetrators of crimes after the fact, and they do
a passable job of that, but the only one who can protect you from crime is
the one who happens to be there when the crime is committed, and that person
is you. Why is that so hard for stupid liberals to understand?