AMERICA IS DIFFERENT

One of the ways in which America is different from all other Western nations is its love of guns. There are more guns than people in the country; and the number of people killed from guns there (either by other citizens or the police) is vastly higher than anywhere else. The fearsomely influential National Rifle Association says that it's not guns that kill people, but people who kill people. True; but I also believe that if there were a lot fewer guns, then there would be many fewer deaths.

Every now and then a story about guns emerges from America which simply makes me shake my head. A kid goes berserk at school and kills a load of his fellow pupils; a disgruntled fired employee wipes out his former office. This week's weirdo occurred when a shooting instructor was killed by a 9-year old girl whom he was teaching to use a gun. And not just any old gun, but an Uzi sub-machine gun.

There are parents in America who think that it is a good idea for their daughter to learn to fire an Uzi sub-machine gun. How insane is that?

Walter Blotscher