First of all, I’d like to express my heartfelt sorrow and deepest, deepest sympathy to everyone affected by the truly horrible killings in Denver, this morning…
… to those who were killed; to those who were injured; to those who survived, physically unscathed, but who will have years of torment ahead of them as they come to terms with the horror of this atrocity; to the families of the dead, the injured and the traumatised, as they gather together and scream and cry and shout and try to comprehend what has happened; to the community, the emergency services and even the journalists sent to the scene to cover this awful story… and to everyone whose hearts are aching, right now, willing with futility that events could somehow be unfolded and made right.
It would be easy for the rest of the world to dismiss this as just another ‘only in America’ mass-murder-by-firearms, but it was two years ago, on the 2nd June, 2010, that 52-year-old Derrick Bird raced around the quiet, country lanes of rural Cumbria – my home county, in England – and left a trail of incomprehensible slaughter, killing 12 people, including his own twin brother, and injuring 11 more.
I didn’t know anyone killed or connected to the Cumbria rampage, but there was an almost tangible sense of shock that it could have happened… here… of all places… so close to home… in such a quiet and peaceful community…
It’s not like we have the same level of access to firearms in the United Kingdom, as is a ‘right’ (I believe?) in the United States.
There were two previous atrocities which brought about massive changes in the law regarding the possession of guns.
The first, in recent history, was 27-year-old Michael Ryan’s rampage in 1987 – know as ‘The Hungerford Massacre’ – where, armed with two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, he shot 16 people dead (including his mother) and injured another 15 before turning the gun on himself.
This incident sent shockwaves through our society and led directly to the ‘Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988’, which tightened controls on the possession of firearms in the United Kingdom (except for Northern Ireland).
The UK has no ‘constitutional’ right to bear arms. Our police forces (in England, Scotland and Wales – which, along with Northern Ireland make up the United Kingdom), by the large, never carried firearms, and nor do they to this day, so why should the general public be allowed such ferocious weaponry?
The second atrocity, in 1996, was probably the most cowardly and disgusting act of internal slaughter in the history of Western society…
Thomas Hamilton, 43, a former Scout Leader, took four handguns into a primary school in the Scottish town of Dunblane, and executed 16 children and one of their teachers. The children were, with the exception of one six-year-old, all aged five. The teacher, who tried to protect them, was 45.
Hamilton shot himself dead soon after, amidst the corpses he’d made of his victims, who simply went to school that morning; pupil and teacher.
In the wake of this, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 were enacted, which effectively made private ownership of handguns illegal in the United Kingdom.
Yet, in 2010, Derrick Bird still murdered 12 people with legally licenced and owned shotguns and rifles.
This is not an ‘only in America’ problem…
I don’t believe in evil and I don’t believe that there are evil people, but, absolutely, there are people in this world who seem hell-bent on causing untold pain and suffering to others, and though I would have previously said that I felt the availability of firearms was a catalyst to these slaughters, it’s a truth that the people who commit these atrocities would likely have found some other way to at least attempt to cause this pain, if guns weren’t available to them…
There were three incidents of mass stabbings of young children in a single month in China, in 2010.
It’s the person, not the weapon, that kills and maims, and it happens all over the world… not just in the US, not just in the UK, not just in China…
I just want to give some advice to anyone who feels they are becoming compelled to hurt others on this sort of level…
I am, I hope you realise, an advocate of the importance of communicating to others if you’re feeling down and depressed, especially if you’re reaching the point of suicide and you can’t see a way out.
Ask for help, always. Make it known that you’re struggling to cope; that your mind is torturing you and you just can’t imagine a future. There are people who will help you.
But if it comes to the point where you’re all set to actively go out into the world and destroy the lives of others… to go on a gun rampage… to slash up a class of kids… to rape and bury a child…
… do this one thing, before you take action…
… kill yourself.
If you are so determined and at the point of ripping apart the families of strangers or friends, do the right thing and end yourself before you begin their endings.
