..... bugger at the tennis today who I argue with started another argument - this time about gun control in New Zealand. He wants no control and believes everyone should have guns in case of burglars, home invasions and I suppose the Easter Bunny coming down his chimney armed with a Kalashnikov.
It's not surprising given his right wing and anti views on everything from Ardern and the Labour government, vaccination and mask wearing mandates, LGBT rights, abortion, climate change -in fact, anything diametrically opposite to my views.
Another member voiced concern at yet another Auckland shooting and asked what can be done about it. I suggested another gun amnesty to remove more unwanted and unneeded guns from the system. This set Mike* right off. He wheeled out the old 'it will only remove guns from the licensed and responsible people, not the criminals' argument. My response to this was "where's the negative? Surely removing any guns from the system, in households that might be robbed and the guns stolen by criminals is a positive." This of course went to deaf ears like asking Robert to explain the silly things in the Catechism, Mass and the Catholic Church.
Mike then wheeled out the very silly "guns don't kill people, people kill people' argument asking "what's next - do we ban hammers, knives, clubs etc.?" I joined in to this agreeing that they should, including pillows, scarves, prescription medicines and boring double bass solos all of which can be dangerous in the wrong hands. I also proffered banning cricket bats as once suggested by another old fool, the now deceased Duke of Edinburgh.
Prince Philip, husband of the Queen of England, usually keeps his mouth shut in public. Today people were reminded why.
He waded into the gun control debate here, prompted by the fatal shooting of 16 children and a teacher by a gun club member in Scotland in March, by suggesting that banning handguns made about as much sense as banning cricket bats.
"I mean, look, if somebody, if a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?"
Washington Post December 20, 1996
I wonder what we'll argue about on Thursday? I haven't broached the religious debate yet. Maybe it's time.
* Mike is his real name.
11 comments:
Sounds like you have fun at tennis.
No, Curmudgeons don't have fun except for moaning.
Okay. Sounds like you're having other experiences at tennis that work alongside fun.
I read the post.
"It's not surprising given his right wing and anti views on everything from Ardern and the Labour government, vaccination and mask wearing mandates, LGBT rights, abortion, climate change -in fact, anything diametrically opposite to my views."
Did you say all that with one breath? I can hear you wheezing when it came to diametrically (gasp) opposite (hold on while I take a breath) to (long pause) my views...
Is that wit or are you having some sort of seizure?
Your comments, aided by a bit of copying and pasting, are longer than your actual posts.
Best to just stick to comments then, eh.
Good to see you boys having fun. Hope you're both not sinning.
I came here for a read but same old post.
Me too.
These comments from the guys who struggle to actually write a post and when they do they seem to run out of steam after 50 words unless they cut and paste something.
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