about what's happened to the ownership of arms in Finland, by e-mail from another Marja:
One example, I guess, what happens when people don't pay sufficient attention to what our lords and masters are doing, the screws here have been tightened in very small steps, but those add up to big ones when you take in all that has happened during the last few decades. I kept thinking about starting shooting, and getting myself a gun, but kept putting it off, and when I finally started to check things I was rather shocked over what had happened to our gun rights while I hadn't been looking. Right now it's getting to be lack of rights rather than rights, if you go by the local laws.
And the second:
I guess one reason why things could get so bad without most people really noticing was because for quite a long time, while there were things like that need for permits for everything it was nearly a given you would get those permits, at least if you hadn't managed to piss off the local police department, so everything seemed more free than it actually was. And those new laws, and everything getting coded to the point where the police could no longer afford to be nice even if they would have wanted to, it happened very quietly. Maybe one tiny article somewhere in the back of the newspaper, maybe not even that. Our news media is worse than yours, I think, when it comes to showing their colors in the way they choose what they report and what they don't, and how they report what they do.
Yeah, most of our media sucks; apparently theirs has a supercharger. And we'd better pay attention to the lessons.
I'll add she's a writer, and recently started a blog with some photography and sketches
1 comment:
Thanks for the link, Firehand.
Our media sometimes makes big news about gun laws, but that's when they can be tied to something like a recent school shooting. We have had a few of those, and some other murders done with a handgun and in public places in the last years, and when the gun used was legal they made a big number of that. While the ones done with illegal guns, well, it may get mentioned, probably in a dependent clause and probably only in one or two news stories telling about the incident.
And legally obtained guns will usually lead to lots of follow up stories about what should be done so irresponsible people can't get at them and nothing like that will happen again, never, trust us, if only we put in place just a few more sensible restrictions...
Yeah, they are pretty good when it comes to spinning in certain directions.
Based on what has happened in my country I would definitely recommend not to give an inch. Not even when that inch concerned may seem like something pretty small and even rather sensible if looked at in isolation. The demands will never stop with that, there will always be something else small and rather sensible that needs to be coded into the laws and regulations. And after that something else again.
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