Guns
God, guns and America
While training as a playwright, I was taught that any gun brought onstage must go off. Anton Chekhov said, ‘One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no… Continue reading
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Barack Obama's Gun Control Measures: Harmless but Ineffective - Spectator Blogs
Barack Obama’s response to the horror of Sandy Hook was entirely predictable, largely unobjectionable and most unlikely to make much of a difference to very much at all. Politics as… Continue reading
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The National Rifle Association Disgraces Itself. Again. - Spectator Blogs
Earlier this week I suggested that America’s gun owners have often been let down by the leadership of the gun-rights movement. I don’t know if that has ever been more… Continue reading
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Newtown, Connecticut: A Very American Tragedy - Spectator Blogs
I’ve not written anything for a few days because, well, I’ve been trying to organise what I think about the awfulness of the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Trying, also, to… Continue reading
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The Connecticut shooting
The news coming out of Connecticut is just awful. 18 children have been gunned down at their school and, reports suggest, that another nine people—including the gunman—are also dead. The… Continue reading
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Has any country got gun laws right?
Every time there is a shooting in the US there is an eruption of sanctimony from Europe about how crazy the US gun-laws are. But there are some good reasons for… Continue reading
31 CommentsThe war on Britain’s streets
Police in Birmingham have released this extraordinary footage of people firing shots at lines of police officers during the riots. As Iain Duncan Smith says in this week’s magazine, the… Continue reading
27 CommentsAmerica’s Top Gun
Bloomberg Businessweek has a fascinating article on how, starting from nothing, Glock has come to dominate the American handgun market. You may not be surprised to discover that ill-conceived gun… Continue reading
15 CommentsShowdown at the Blame Game Corral
Alastair Campbell, of all people, shows how the ghastly Tucson shootings are to be exploited for political purposes: What the right are now doing is trying to portray the killer… Continue reading
6 CommentsAn Assassination in Tucson
Washington is such a small place that it’s little surprise to discover that I know people who were friends with at least one of the people murdered in Tucson yesterday.… Continue reading
14 CommentsAstonishing Development: Common Sense and Decency Win the Day
More legal matters: remember the case of Gail Cochrane? She’s the 53-year old Dundonian who was jailed for five years for the crime of possessing her father’s service revolver. The… Continue reading
1 CommentAnother Disgraceful Prosecution
Like the Devil’s Kitchen, I’m late getting to this story travesty. The most enraging aspect of it is, of course, that one can no longer be surprised by this kind… Continue reading
12 CommentsPaul Clarke Sentenced Today
Remember the Paul Clarke affair*? He’s the chap who found a shotgun in his garden, took it to the local police station, was arrested for possession of a firearm, tried,… Continue reading
5 CommentsPaul Clarke Update II
The national newspapers may not be terribly interested in the Paul Clarke case but, happily, legal blogger Jack of Kent is. He’s produced a detailed account of the case, and… Continue reading
4 CommentsPaul Clarke Update
Remember the outcry after the discovery that Paul Clarke could face five years in prison for the "crime" of finding a sawn-off shotgun in his garden and handing it in… Continue reading
13 CommentsIs This the Most Enraging Story of the Year? Perhaps!
You might think that this story can’t be true or that’s been made-up to provoke everyone’s inner Littlejohn. But no, not so. It is true and, alas, an enraging, dispiriting… Continue reading
25 CommentsThe Future of Policing
PC Heckler and PC Koch prepare for life on the beat. Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images. Let us concede that there may be problems in Brixton, Haringey and Tottenham that demand… Continue reading
12 CommentsWhy do Americans love guns?
I am puzzled. Puzzled that is, by the British attitude towards America’s gun culture. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s (in my view) common sense ruling that the 2nd… Continue reading
8 CommentsDepartment of Firearms
Good news from Washington: a common-sense interpretation of the Second Amendment prevails at the Supreme Court: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns… Continue reading
0 CommentsWho says the culture wars are over?
This is probably the dumbest thing Barack Obama has said all year. "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest,… Continue reading
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