I genuinely do not understand why anyone, on either side of the Atlantic, would waste so much as a soupçon of their breath arguing for gun control in the USA. What’s the point? America is stuck with its gun glut from now until eternity. The calls for tougher restrictions were predictably and pointlessly renewed this week after the appalling school shootings in Minneapolis. “Never again,” was the utterly understandable anguished cry in the hours afterwards. Understandable, but seriously deluded. And here’s why.
America could alter its constitution and repeal the infamous Second Amendment – the one that guarantees the people “the right to keep and bear arms” at midnight tonight, and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to the numbers of school shootings, gang shootings, shootings during robberies, domestic shootings, accidental shootings, or shootings of any kind, cause or description.
For the simple reason that there are 400m (I’ll spell that out for the avoidance of doubt: FOUR HUNDRED MILLION) privatelyowned guns in America. That’s more than one firearm per head of the population.
In addition, last year alone the US arms industry churned out 9b (again, here it is for clarity: NINE BILLION) small-arms rounds. That’s over 20 bullets per gun. Add that to the billions of bullets already produced over past decades, and you have a veritable Everest of ammunition.
Properly stored, ammunition can last indefinitely. The same goes for guns. A First World War Webley revolver, stored in a dry drawer and cleaned and oiled occasionally, will fire with exactly the same effectiveness and reliability as it would have in 1914, over a century ago.
As it will a century from now. And the century after that. So even if the all-powerful American NRA (National Rifle Association), which has effortlessly blocked all attempts to limit US citizens’ access to virtually anything from a small-calibre pocket pistol to a chunky assault rifle or submachine-gun, were to somehow be de-fanged, America would remain a country armed to the teeth for the foreseeable future.
Even a law compelling citizens to hand over their newly-illegal weapons would be toothless. Almost no one would comply. (Polls prove this).
Meanwhile, new laws allowing draconian penalties for school shooters such as Robin Westman, the deranged 23-year-old who shot dead two little children in Minneapolis and wounded 17 more – say, death by electric chair; a lifetime in absolute solitary confinement – would be useless.
Mass slayers like Westman invariably shoot themselves dead immediately after their lust to kill is sated. America has left its gun problem far too long to solve. It’s insoluble, and the victims to come are stuck with it. Forever.
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So. This is the new “punishment” for crims who otherwise would be sent to the slammer. Barred from going down the pub. Banned from watching their side kicking the ball about on a Saturday. Prevented from pogo-ing at a pop concert.
Well, prohibited from going at all. This, because our prisons are full. So go on. Burgle a house. Nick a car. Mug a pensioner. You’ll be fine. No porridge for you. Just a stern warning to keep clear of the boozer, etc.
The Sentencing Bill, to be laid before MPs next month, is, of course, unenforceable nonsense. How do you police it? Have you SEEN the crowds seething outside football stadiums on a Saturday?
The most wanted man in the world could probably stroll in, and out again. Ditto pubs. Who’s going to check if that bloke nursing a pint over in the corner is in breach of a court order? Answer: no one.
Build. More. Prisons.
