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Thanks jj, I was going to say "fascist" but you are correct about Heinlein.

Mart

terrible,did anyone also read of the retired old soldier that was shot for no apparent reason.

Personally speaking I have an absolute fascination for firearms - I have a firearms certificate and own a very powerful air rifle (by UK standards) as well as a number of replica and blank firing weapons.

However having said that I dont think that arming Joe Public is the answer - I do, however, believe that PART of the answer is to routinely arm the police. Having grown up in Northern Ireland and lived there for 23 years seeing armed police (and soldiers) is nothing new to me so maybe its not as big a culture change for me as for some but when I came to the UK and saw the police with nothing more than a baton and CS spray it really made me realise just how brave those guys are and how useless those defences / weapons would be if faced with an armed villian.

Im not naive enough to think that just because the police are armed that all our woes will go away but I think its wrong to expect the police to uphold the law without giving them the proper tools just as it would be improper to expect the traffic police to police the motorways with bicycles it is improper to expect bobbies to police areas with known gun issues with a piece of wood and some gas.

I know lots of people will disagree with me but, in my opinion, its foolish of anyone to try and deny that we are living in a gun culture where weapons are freely available for villians for next to nothing on whats seems like every street corner or in every pub and, despite agreeing slightly with the argument that arming the police could cause innocent lives to be lost, I think its a small price to pay to start to try and regain control of our streets from the bad guys.

I appreciate that people have very differing opinions on the police and the job that they do but, generally speaking, I have the utmost respect for them and the very difficult job they have to do and I think they deserve our thanks, gratitude and respect.

Jason

I wasn't aware that I had imputed evil in firearms (or indeed any other item of human manufacture): and I'm not suggesting that all, or even a majority of, people who use firearms illegally or improperly are evil- merely misguided or lacking in judgment.
And there's the rub- while I would normally make a case that we shouldn't legislate the availablity of an item just because of the few idiots or psychotics who might misuse it, given the lethal nature of the product under discussion, that's exactly what I'm doing.
While I'm sure you are cool and rational at all times, for a lot of less well-balanced but nevertheless 'functional' people the mere possession of a handgun will make them erroneously believe that all the problems they may face can be solved by the application of force majeure- and that is a terrifying prospect to contemplate.

As a dentist, she must already have been well-versed in the finer points of torture.............
......to this day, I cannot watch Marathon Man*......[shudder].

* ....or should that be Snickers Man?

I'm glad these cunts have been brought to justice.
Justice! If we can call it that.

OK so for once it seems that the right thing has been done.

My sympathy lies with the family.
I'm sure their version of justice would be very different.