Jack Tame: Guns don't fire themselves

Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Photo / Christine Corneg

Guns. As even a trigger-happy, AK-47-toting, hollow-pointed bullet fan Rambo will agree: in the wrong hands they can do rather a lot of bad.

Ask the cops in South Auckland who discovered a worrying cache of high-powered firearms in a suspected drug dealer's ceiling. Ask the four cops shot in the Bay of Plenty and their colleagues who calmly resolved the Kawerau siege.

And ask Jamie Gilt, the Florida mum who this week was shot in the back by her 4-year-old son with a .45 caliber handgun.

I don't want to be too nasty about that last incident given Gilt was fairly seriously injured when her son picked up the pistol from the floor of the family pick-up truck and somehow hit the trigger.

Except there is a certain irony in a gun advocate being shot by her preschool son, a certain irony in Gilt's recent social media posts where she had boasted of her son's shooting ability.

You have to wonder how the "Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense" Facebook page will handle this publicity snafu.

Of all the absurd things to come up in the US election campaign, gun laws have taken a relative back seat. Candidates have debated border walls and a religious test for anyone arriving in the country.

Donald Trump has taken to the debate stage to defend the size of his hands and insist on the size of his own member. But, guns? Meh.

The Democrats might support change but even they have been loathe to promise much. Fair enough, too. It would be hard to do much worse than Barack Obama's presidency.

Despite massacre after massacre, gun sales today are stronger than ever.

In many states it is easier to get a new piece than it was when Obama took over. Take Iowa, for example. Late last month, state lawmakers passed a bill that could soon allow kids under 14 to use handguns.

Sure, parents have to maintain "visual and verbal contact" but just ask Jamie Gilt.

What could possibly go wrong? Guns don't kill people. People kill people.

Duh.

Jack Tame is on Newstalk ZB, Saturdays, 9am-noon

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