From: SADW, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
My comments about 'national maturity' relate to the undeniable fact that
many Americans believe the groundrules of the pioneer age still apply, and
the 'visceral gene' means many tend to shoot first and ask questions
afterwards, both figuratively and literally, US foreign policy being a good
example of the former......and sometimes the latter too! I suspect the
Israelis have also read the same book.
Furthermore, many in the US go about daily life as if it was one long
combat mission, anticipating that they might be confronted or cut down at
any moment by any of an endless array of potential bad guys. Now, there may
well be some bloodholes (I can think of a few) where this is justified, but
not for a nation as a whole. If this were the case in the UK, we'd all be
permanently on Valium.
Attitudes towards personal safety and others around you are totally
different in the UK & Europe and, as we all know, things would have to very
seriously deteriorate before there was ever any general public call in
Britain for firearms for personal protection.
In response to earlier comments, I have indeed lived abroad, I travel very
widely and have by now made more trips to the US than I can accurately
count. Nor are these thoughts anything very new.
Fact is, they're Americans and we ain't, and that's all there is to it. The
respective attitudes are not remotely interchangeable. If there's any more
travelling to be done, it's most likely our US cousins who need to be doing
it, in order to check out the cultural environment this side of the water.
The long-suffering 'IG' is right - at present, US considerations are
largely irrelevant to the firearms issue over here, though if the
'Americanisation' of society being so enthusiastically pursued by New
Labour continues indefinitely, this could conceivably change.
Nick Steadman
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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