I have no wish to pontificate on another culture's normative order, but I do have questions about the current issue of guns in the United States. The US has cultural mores that I find difficult to understand and that I find profoundly unattractive. That is their business and not mine, I freely admit. But the question of guns raises fundamental issues that affect every society, so, at the risk of offending my American friends, which I sincerely hope I can avoid, let me make some observations.
The first obvious fact of the American gun question is that it is enshrined in the Second Amendment. However, this is a piece of legislation that was passed in 1791 when the population of America was four million people, 95% of whom lived in a rural setting. As the USA was a fledgling society with no standing army that had just fought a war with the then dominant nation in the world, the US were quite rationally concerned that they would have the means to protect themselves with a speedily arranged and effectively armed militia should the need arise. In addition, this was a society where the sixgun and the rifle were normal as the Uzi, the Kalashnikov, the assault rifle with telescopic lens etc. had not been invented. There were no organised police departments, no FBI etc. and everyone was responsible for their own safety and the safety of their community. In other words, the USA of the 1790's was a completely different nation and culture to the modern nation state. Today's USA has absolutely nothing in common with the USA of the Founding Fathers. I raise this because I find it strange that no-one seems to take such matters into consideration in the debate about guns. I also raise it because guns and a gun culture are slowly making their way into the United Kingdom and we have a police force that are desperate to be armed. Quite honestly, an American style gun culture taking root in this country terrifies me and must never be allowed to flourish.
The other aspect of this complex problem I would comment on is the insistence that a curb on their ability to carry guns is a direct assault on American freedom. I find this approach quite wrong. I have a deep philosophical and political objection to the concept of absolutes. I do not believe in them. Everything is relative. There is no, and can never be, an absolute freedom. It is the same with rights. All people have the right to life, but that right is not absolute if you are going to exploit your right to life by taking away someone else's right. Freedom and rights are paradoxes, in the sense that your freedom and rights can never be the foundation for removing other people's freedom and rights. As the old saying goes, your right to swing your fist wherever you want to stops at the end of my nose. As a result, the right to bear and carry arms must be regarded as both relative and limited, that is, it should always be regulated, and this is what I find disturbing about the furore that has followed Obama's extremely modest proposals for the regulation of guns. The anger and rhetoric of American gun enthusiasts is quite illogical and irrational.
We had a very serious incident in Dunblane in Scotland when we were subjected to an American style shooting in a school. There was an immediate call for the strict regulation of guns that was eventually conceded by the government, but being a Tory government they had to be dragged screaming and kicking to submit to the will of the electorate. The local Tory MP refused to support measures to control firearms and was subsequently roundly defeated at the next election. He may have been Scottish but he was a traditional Tory elitist imbecile and got exactly what he deserved. As I repeatedly tell you, the Scots are far to intelligent and civilised to suffer people like that for too long. There have been no other Dunblanes. I do not know if this has any relevance for our American friends but I feel that if they do not address this issue as a matter of urgency it will have very profound implications for American society. You have been warned.
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
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