June 18
Some of
my happier days while I was in the army were when we were on the ranges doing
our annual classification in various weapon systems. My last such day was the
day before I handed in my kit in ready to leave the army late October 1979.
This one is memorable simply because of the total waste of ammunition, and
therefore waste of time in case at least. Even so I did enjoy it.
That day
was SMG (sub machine-gun) shooting. This weapon was light weight and I found it
was the easiest one to use. It wasn’t all that effective really in that it was
a close quarter weapon. It’s range was fairly short too and never fired it over
a 30ft range. Even so I had to classify with it and in so doing we all fired
off at least 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition. As I said, a total waste of
resources.
There was
an item on Facebook yesterday afternoon relating to the latest mass shooting
over in Yankyland. It showed a car and the words, ‘Killed 30 people; withdrawn.’
Next was a pill, Tylenol with the words, ‘Killed 70; was withdrawn.’ Next was a
picture of a handgun with the words, ‘Killed 32,000 a year for many years; not
withdrawn.’ That seemed to speak fairly clearly about the whole issue, at least
to me it did.
Not only
that, a supreme court judge has said that the NRA stance on the Second Amendment
is a flawed understanding of the Amendment. He claimed it was brought in for law
and order measures, not so that every man woman and child could have and use a
gun. No, it written at a time when many parts of the America really were the frontier.
And don’t forget, they were, or just had claimed independence from England and
an invasion was expected. Sadly, none of this takes into account, the 20/21st
Century earnings of the amount of almighty dollars. And of course we all know
that nothing is allowed to get in the way of the advancement the dollar
collectors.
And that
sadly is whole of the pro-gun lobby story. They claim it’s not guns that kill
but people. People are dying at the hands of knife wielding killers or drivers
in their cars, and yet neither knives or cars have been banned from use. Well,
that’s true enough I suppose; however, the killer who was behind the last mass
shooting also had knives and a car, yet he chose to use a guns to do his
killing.
It might
be claimed that we do not have mass-shooting here in the UK; well, go tell that
to the people of Dunblane and Hungerford, and more recently in the north west of
England. Both of these shooters had well know mental illness issues. So how did
they manage to get gun licences? That it really the biggest question that needs
asking and looking at.
These
events are few and far between of course, but what we do have is the shooting
dead of individuals in all areas of the UK. Most of them we don’t hear about,
it’s only when a high profile victim gets hit that the media really kicks up a
stink. Jo Cox, a MP was gunned down and stabbed. I don’t need to retell the
story. Now the killer is already claiming mental illness, with his brother
coming out to say he too has mental health issues. Can you see where this
going? I can, and I don’t believe on word of it! I just hope the jury sees
through it too.
A Johnny
Cash song has the words, ‘I shot a man in Memphis, just to watch him die …’ I
wonder just how many killers, anywhere in the world, would say they kill for
the same reason? Of course, that would require some sort of honesty from them,
but could we really be sure that the killer is being honest or just stringing
us along. I would suggest that in such cases there has to be some sort of mental
illness. After all, no sane person would even think of such things … would
they?
So where
does leave crime writers who happily sit and write about someone out and about
killing just for fun, or so it seems. In my first book The Mission, my killer runs about killing people, more to take the
pee pee out of the cops and to try to show them up as fools. In a later one, Web of Hate I have a young woman killing
students across the UK. The body count in that one actually huge. So what does
that say about me? I’ll leave that to you to decide …
Today’s
photo …
The cover for Web of Hate;
the photo is one of mine.
Today’s
funny …
A cowboy rides into town, goes into a bar, has a beer, walks
outside and finds his horse has been stolen. He walks into the bar, and fires
his gun through the ceiling. "WHICH ONE OF YOU MOTHERS STOLE MY
HOSS?" he yells. No-one answers. "ALRIGHT, I'M GONNA HAVE ANOTHA
BEER, AND IF MY HOSS AIN'T OUTSIDE BY THE TIME I FINNISH, I'M GONNA DO WHAT I
DUN IN TEXAS". He gets another beer, walks outside, and his horse is back,
so he get's on it and makes to ride out of town. The bartender wanders out of
the bar and asks "Say partner, what happened in Texas?". The cowboy
turns to him and says "I had to walk all the way home..."
No comments:
Post a Comment