For anyone who follows Piers Morgan on twitter (I appreciate this may not be many of you!) you will know he is always tweeting about the gun licence laws in the US and is very critical of them. Last week he tweeted this advert from a 'Moms' group in the US. I was so taken aback by the message of this advert I decided to do some more research on what the laws are actually like out here.
I'll start by saying I'm not wholly comfortable with guns, I have shot them in the past but it wasn't an experience I got a lot of enjoyment from. Matt has a gun in the UK, a concept again that I wasn't wholly comfortable with until I took a lot of reassurance from the process required to buy and own a gun. Forms were required, referencing completed, visits from the firearms officer including an interview. When we moved house, another inspection was completed. Matt was encouraged if he ever felt depressed, to sign his gun over to the police or a friend. I am not allowed to know where the key to the gun safe is kept. And the ammunition must be stored separately. All this made me feel very reassured about the fact a gun was going to be kept in the house.
America gets a lot of bad press about guns and seemingly quite rightly so. There's lots of shootings, some which don't even make the worldwide press anymore like they used to. The referenced tweet by Piers Morgan was the same day a four year old killed another four year old with an armed rifle found under a grandparents bed.
I decided to do some research into gun licences over here. I started with New York state, to see what the process was. I was quite surprised, on face value a long process is required to get a handgun. It takes several months and even more reassuringly you can't legally own an assault weapon in NY. It turns out that NY has some of the most restrictive gun licencing laws in the US, clearly we chose a good place to move to.
I wondered therefore what the fuss was about. So I decided to look into Texas, an area I knew which takes gun owning quite seriously. Texas has NO laws regarding the ownership of handguns, rifles or shotguns by over 18 without felony convictions! The licencing is around people's ability to conceal carry rather than own them.
Many American's claim a right to own guns is covered under the second amendment and the National Rifle Association (NRA) are very defensive around gun licencing laws (or lack of them in some cases) and claim that they don't impact the mass shootings/crimes committed. I saw a great comedian over Christmas on TV though who I thought summed it up nicely 'If I give you my phone, are you more or less likely to make a call?'.
So, in conclusion, I could never embrace these gun laws. In fact these, along with another subject I will cover later in my blog, are one of my two big pet hates about the USA. How is it possible that a Kinder egg can be banned but a gun not?
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