Comments on: It's time for gun control

By: John Meilak

John Meilak — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:20:59 +0000

I’d rather teach such people anger management rather than limiting the use of conventional firearms. Mind you, a Molotov cocktail is quite easy to make at home and much more horrific and devastating than a shotgun. So will we ban people from keeping flammable liquids at home just because they can potentially kill people? Even a car is a weapon. You could run over people on purpose. Shall we ban cars then?

The greatest weapon of all in my opinion is the human mind. A diabolic plan, well thought out, doesn’t even require firearms. Shall we ban the use of minds then?

[Daphne – You miss the point. Guns are dangerous because they allow for an instant and very dangerous response to loss of temper. You just pick it up and pull the trigger. There is a common denominator to all these shootings: red rage. People in a red rage don’t make Molotov cocktails or plot stuff.]

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:44:46 +0000

“Daphne – In fact, when women attack someone in a violent rage, they will head for the kitchen and use a knife.”

Now if I want to be a chauvinist prick I would say that at least they get the first part right… Oh I just did.

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:44:28 +0000

“Daphne – The point being that if women went hunting and had shotguns, they would probably use them to kill the people who make them see red. But women don’t have shotguns, and so they don’t go around shooting people when they’re angry.”

That statement is so simplistic I would love to find an error in it, but it irritates me greatly to realise you are probably right. Perhaps having a less violent nature is attributable to lesser shooting incidents by women as well though.

[Daphne – In fact, when women attack someone in a violent rage, they will head for the kitchen and use a knife.]

By: NGT

NGT — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:35:38 +0000

@ DCG “running home for a steak-knife would have been another thing altogether” – you obviously haven’t seen Friday 13th. Anyway, hope you have a happy Christmas and thanks for the blog – s’been entertaining.

By: H.P. Baxxter

H.P. Baxxter — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:44:00 +0000

@ David Buttigieg: Not true. To get a licence for a pistol in Malta, let alone an assault rifle, you have be vetted by the Malta Gun Owners’ Federation, your licence being renewed periodically, after undergoing a whole batch of tests which would be deemed an invasion of privacy in other spheres. In other words, it is next to impossible to get a gun licence in Malta. It is slightly easier to get a licence for a hunting rifle (a shotgun).

By: Marku

Marku — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:43:39 +0000

U ejja!! Frans Sammut is a pompous ass? Never!

By: It’s still too early for gun control « Malta, 9 Thermidor

It’s still too early for gun control « Malta, 9 Thermidor — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:45:47 +0000

[…] gun control In Home Affairs, Media, Public Finances on 22 December 2008 at 12:45 pm Daphne comments on the recent spate of shootings. We like to tut-tut at the Americans and their right to bear arms, […]

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:32:22 +0000

Come on, you actually think gun control is the solution? You really think that madman wouldn’t have found some other weapon to frighten and injure the people in that bar? And even if there was more gun control, what makes you think the man wouldn’t have purchased the gun illegally anyway? In fact, I believe the man didn’t even have a permit for that shotgun he used.

And may I direct your attention to the fight that occurred in Birzebbuga last night:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081222/local/two-women-injured-in-birzebbuga-fight

No guns, no knives… all it took was a bottle to seriously injure a teenager.

[Daphne – If you have a gun, you’ll use it. If you don’t have a gun, you can’t. Losing your temper with a gun is one thing. Leaving that bar and running home for a steak-knife would have been another thing altogether.]

By: David Buttigieg

David Buttigieg — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:10:28 +0000

And by the way, the nastiest wound one can get from a weapon is that from a sawn-off shotgun, the shotguns that are licensed in Malta for ‘hunting’

By: David Buttigieg

David Buttigieg — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:08:32 +0000

More than one person told me something that seems ludicrous – apparently from next year one can buy ANY type of gun including assault rifles such as AK-47s and revolvers as long as they are kept at home.

Can anybody confirm this?