At 6.45am on 26th August, the American people permitted the murder of Alison Parker and Adam Ward.
While carrying out their work, this TV partnership were gunned down. Adam fell immediately, but Alison did not. She saw this ex-colleague shoot her cameraman and turn the gun upon her. She ran screaming, but could not outpace his bullets which left this attractive 24 year-old girl’s body twitching on the ground as its lifeblood drained away and her brain struggled to accept what was happening to it and never knowing why.
Both left fiancés from the same TV station, one of whom witnessed the event live from the studio and the other had just celebrated their moving in together.
Two lives snuffed out and many more than two people forever traumatised by the action of the ex-colleague who then shot himself.
In any civilised nation the worst which should have happened that Wednesday morning was that the disgruntled ex-employee could have bloodied the nose of Adam and perhaps also hit Alison, but this is was not in a civilised country – it happened in the United States of America where gung-ho macho idiots have the right to buy firearms. One thing is absolutely certain – the chance of Alison and Adam being dead was virtually zero if this man had not owned a gun.
While I feel very sorry for Alison’s father, it is pathetic that he has called for more background checks before gun sales. Such an appeal shows that he totally misunderstands what happened in this case. This was an ordinary guy with a grievance. In the UK, ninety-nine times out of a hundred he would have screamed and shouted at his perceived antagonists, perhaps physically assaulting them. He could, of course, have used a knife, but in that circumstance there would have been a far greater opportunity for Alison and the other lady to escape or react differently. It is much more difficult to kill with a knife than most people imagine and Adam might have survived the assault. Guns kill so easily and swiftly.
What caused the death of Alison and Adam was the fact that this happened in the USA and this man had, perfectly legally, bought a hand-gun. No amount of additional background checks would have stopped him obtaining the weapon. Only a ban could have achieved that. Guns have been banned in the UK since the Dunblane massacre which nearly cost Andy Murray his life. In the UK Alison and Adam would not be dead.
Why did he need a hand gun? Why does anyone need a hand gun? Why does the majority of the USA population believe they need hand guns or even assault weapons? It is just plain daft.
So now we are all left with tears in our eyes for poor Alison, Adam, even the perpetrator and their grieving families for only one reason – because the American people do not have the guts to stand up to the twisted, lying gun lobby. Neither do they have the wherewithal to realise that it is the right-wing Billy The Kid style Republican politicians who are determined to allow this slaughter to continue as they crow about the importance of an outdated part of their constitution. How incredibly foolish can people be?
The argument that you have the right to bear arms is, of course, a nonsense. It was written down when arms were needed to keep the peace and to stand against possible insurgency. Time has moved on. You don’t need a gun at your waist in order to protect yourself from other gun-slingers or from the possibility of the government being taken over by anarchy. Peaceful civilised countries do not need their populations to have a gun to protect themselves and neither does America.
There will always be exceptions to the rules and these are forever being raised by the moronic supporters of the gun lobby. The fact of the matter is that the chance of the owning of a gun saving your life is infinitesimal, yet the chance of being killed by someone who owns such a gun, purchased for protection, remains consistently high and is growing.
All of the school kids massacred by other children who managed to lay their hands on their parents’ secure weapons. All of those disgruntled workers who have gone postal and killed innocent people. All of those university students who have been deprived of their future just as this wonderful world’s opportunities were about to open up for them. All of the accidental shootings of one child by another or a parent by a child because of the possession of guns.
The gun lobby has even suggested the solution to the problem is for teachers to be armed. Is there anyone who cannot see this as an extraordinarily stupid suggestion?
Of course, crimes will still be committed with guns, it still happens, although now extremely rarely, in the UK where even owning a gun is banned. It is so rare that the danger is minuscule, but while everyone has a gun in the USA, then the accidents and intentional “going postal” or “going broadcast” events will continue. Criminals are also more likely to carry them as a matter of course. The only way to break this cycle is to ban weapons except hunting rifles and shotguns for pest control.
One day the country which amazed the world with its giant leap for mankind will wake up, come to its senses, and ban all personal ownership of hand guns.
Charlton Heston might still be lying in his grave with his decomposed fingers gripping his Smith and Weston, but he and his type will be forever linked with a period of madness in the American nation that only good, sensible people can ever overcome.
It is getting worse, America, the unnecessary deaths are escalating in your country. The opportunity to do something about that is in your own hands.
In the meantime I wipe away the actual tears from thinking about Alison and Adam’s wasted lives and find it impossible to comprehend how anyone, anyone at all, can ever want or need to own a gun.
Please join me in my wish to see this self-induced carnage stopped once and for all.
Tony Harmsworth, 27th August 2015 – the first day of the rest of the lives of those poor grieving relatives and colleagues.
I received an email asking why I single out Republicans. I was using the following gallup as a source, but there are always lies, damn lies and statistics.
