Gun Culture

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Gun Culture Debate

I’ve been avoiding blogging on this matter, mostly because I don’t think I can do justice to the matter in hand.
However I can’t put it off forever....
JohnJo at Frontrank The England Project asks

Who broke gun culture and how might we get it back?

Firstly John corrects those of us who consider John a libertarian.  John doesn’t tick all the libertarian boxes such as drug law and immigration law.  One might say that this is because he hasn’t taken his thoughts on the matter to their logical conclusion.  I too once didn’t think that scrapping drug laws was a good idea, however two factors changed my mind.  Firstly the knowledge that prohibition has never worked and never will, and secondly J.S. Mills who considered that over the mind and body the individual is sovereign - i.e. it’s none of my dammned business if my neighbour wishes to shoot skag up his veins.  If that causes him to commit a crime however, then he should be punished for that crime.  We don’t (yet) ban the drug alcohol because people abusing it may commit crime for example.  I digress!  John is probably a libertarian leaning conservative, it’s all good!

Back to the subject at hand.  Gun Culture.

After my initial amusement at being unwittingly the subject of John’s post, we get to the meat.
John believes that the prejudice against guns, what one might call an anti-gun culture, can only be tackled by the growth of the shooting sports.  John argues that the UK is not prepared for guns as a self defence tool.  He is to a certain extent correct.  The establishment will not hear of such a thing, very few corners of the media will entertain the idea.  The chattering classes have a pavlovian fit at the very concept of the thing, gun ownership in the eyes of these people is the next best thing to kiddy fiddling - in some eyes it literally is a perversion.
These people will never be won over - ever.
No amount of fine sporting acheivements, Olympic medals, responsible behaviour will change their view.
Guns are evil.  There is no need for private individuals to possess these things

In short we are wasting our time with the establishment and the chattering classes.
So what of the rest, the undecided, the easily lead, the not bothereds?
Will they come over to us to punch holes in paper in a dark poorly ventilated shed in the middle of nowhere?  To shatter clay discs in the air once a week in a windswept quarry after having waited 10 minutes plus for your turn?
Will they bugger.  Many of those who would, already have.  For sure there are some out there and we should be reaching out and embracing them, but the trickle will never turn into a tide.

People are however interested in their own safety.  They do read the papers and see people terrorised in their own homes, they do see householders killed by burglaries ‘gone wrong’ and they do feel uneasy walking to their cars on a dark night.
In short there are a significant number of people out there who very much would like to own a firearm for self defence.
This from the Observer from two years ago (Guardian on Sunday)

If the law were changed to allow possession of registered handguns, would you be tempted to carry a gun for protection?

Yes 22%
No 78%

Now this is from the journal of choice for the chattering classes and liberal establishment.  Were this today and from a more central or (whisper it) more right wing publication I have absolutely no doubt the number would be significantly higher.

To summarise; I believe that sporting shooting is doomed in the UK and no amount of good behaviour will change this.
The recognition that self defence is the most basic human right that there is and that a firearm is the best tool for this is the only thing which can possibly save private firearm ownership.  Not just in the UK but across the globe.

The final word goes to Kim du Toit

At best, using John’s prescription, gun ownership will belong to an ever-dwindling group of people, until it finally disappears like a candle burning out. If I’m proved incorrect in this, and gun ownership (and the “gun culture") does indeed grow as a result of shooting sports growth, then I’ll be the happiest man in the world.