On weapons.

Sweet, Sweet, Sweet Penis Extension

Which does not mean that, the possibility to
own one is not a quintessential civil right.

Fact one; I like weapons, abstractly - as toys for badly grown-up children as they are.

The Big Weapons, truth be told - my wallpaper used to be a Merkava MKIII, and I had a Su-27 model in my office.

It made for fun discussions with Eva, the 4th generation Buddhist pacifist in the office in front of mine.

Fact two: I do not own a weapon.

My father had a shotgun, but in the end it went to the Italian Carabinieri, as I didn't apply for a transfer of his permit when he died. It is better like this... the stupid thing had never been used, anyway, so it was only something more to worry about.

Fact three: I like weapons, abstractly, but the less of them around me, the better.

I wouldn't feel safer having one myself, and the people around me would probably be at some risk.
Because it is not so difficult to get me in the mood for killing someone - for some thirty seconds, then rationality kicks back in and my head cools down.But in those thirty seconds...

So I rather live in a place where weapons are scarce, their diffusion somewhat impeded and - hence - I do not feel the need to be "on par" with any potential aggressor, by buying one.

 - Also, I should be honest... I am the one looking like the fabled potential aggressor, most of times - bulky, stocky and angry-faced... usually, I am really thinking about some 80s' Japanese cartoon, but from the outside it is not so apparent.

I rather stay in one of the quietest corners of Europe - in what is, maybe, the era with the lowest violent crime's rate ever - and not try my luck living in more adventurous places, like, say, the US.

However, if I was in the US, I would probably buy a gun myself  - some nice  Beretta, or a Cz75 (up above).

And, in order to not be precluded the possession of my nice little toy, I wouldn't so much as come near a psychiatrist or any  other mental health figure - not if (s)he was obliged by law to signal my unfitness for gun ownership to authorities... if I am a bit depressed, and I am, it is a problem of mines. 

By the way,this is the reason why I think the proposals to limit the access of "mentally ill" people to guns - proposals that pop out, regularly, after every mass shooting that happens in the US -  is, at best, a move  to appease the electorate...

These controls are going to fail, because the associated bureaucracy is going to be as labyrinthine as it always is, because there are always ways around it for a determined person that is not above recurring to criminal means and, finally, because really deranged persons - those with actual intention to use guns to maim and kill - will just stay the hell away from any mental health professional who could report them, in order to avoid losing access to their beloved toys.

Also, as someone else  pointed out, being certified paranoid doesn't automatically mean that your neighbour - which has no intention of ever meet a therapist, just to end gun-less like you - may  not really be thinking about how to kill you...

So, either where I live nobody has a weapon (I do not care about criminals - a professional criminal may kill you with a spoon, and you'd wish he just had used a gun), or  - certified crazy or not - I want mine.


Final note: I like the right to bear guns in the US constitution, because it is contingent to the right of the people to mount a guerrilla against the government in case it turns dictatorial - which, given the situation of my own country, would feel nice to have, though probably useless. 

By the way, I think it is what makes the whole "war on terror" incredibly fun to watch from this side of the pond... or creepy, if you read it as the preparation for when an increasingly undemocratic US government will have to crush violent dissidents at home - which could as well be - and once one considers that France seems to be sliding in the same direction.

Or, if you prefer... I rather live in a gun free country - as I do - but, when they say "the government wants to take our guns away", the right wing nuts may not be nuts at all.