[Magdalen] My County responds.

[Sally Davies]

Gun control is more or less an article of faith here in the Pub with few
voices speaking against it.

But it came as a shock for me to see discussion on my other list, a
clinicians' list of mainly American psychologists and social workers, that
for them it's simply accepted that "guns are not the problem". And yet
these are thinking, highly educated and liberal leaning people who deal on
a regular basis with family and community violence.

It seems that for many people, the starting position is that guns CANNOT be
the problem because it would be un-American to think so.

That interview that a (much younger) John Oliver did on gun control is
brilliant. He also made the point about Australia's effective use of the
law to change the gun culture there.

Our gun control laws enacted in 2000 have also made a difference, but are
beset with difficulties as this well written 2014 article from Daily
Maverick explains (with reference to Oscar Pistorius who's currently back
in the news):

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-03-17-analysis-wheres-our-debate-on-gun-control/

We have huge issues with guns here but unlike the USA, gun ownership has
never been considered an absolute unquestioned right, written into the
Constitution.

Sally D

On Saturday, December 5, 2015, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
>
> A blurb on the USA national evening news tonight mentioned that
> the USA, with 5% of the world's population, has 47% of the world's
> guns.  Essentially there is a firearm for every person in the  USA.
>
>
>
> David S.
>