It is instructive to observe the U.S. from abroad, even if that means watching Swiss television, as I did this morning (tsr.ch), with its report on the battle in the U.S. Senate over firearms.
In Texas, and I believe this is more than anecdotal, in the town of Louisville, the report showed children aged 12 or younger (I think there were kids as young as 8) receive instruction in using guns and rifles (one mother explained it as being so that their children could learn how not to hit things that they did not want to kill) in classrooms. One father offered it as a gift to his son on his birthday.
One gun store owner explained his opposition to tightening of gun control laws saying that instruction was so purely for self defense, not to kill innocent others. But one knows already how in this trigger-happy society how easily one elides into the other, intentionally or accidentally.
I believe the state of affairs in the Lonestar State to be deeply immoral.
And I would not be unhappy if Texas left the U.S. with my blessing and with George W. Bush as its new president.
In Texas, and I believe this is more than anecdotal, in the town of Louisville, the report showed children aged 12 or younger (I think there were kids as young as 8) receive instruction in using guns and rifles (one mother explained it as being so that their children could learn how not to hit things that they did not want to kill) in classrooms. One father offered it as a gift to his son on his birthday.
One gun store owner explained his opposition to tightening of gun control laws saying that instruction was so purely for self defense, not to kill innocent others. But one knows already how in this trigger-happy society how easily one elides into the other, intentionally or accidentally.
I believe the state of affairs in the Lonestar State to be deeply immoral.
And I would not be unhappy if Texas left the U.S. with my blessing and with George W. Bush as its new president.
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