It appears that gun-totting children has reached epidemic proportions in the UK:
“Thirteen children under the age of 10 have been issued with shotgun certificates in the UK over the past three years. The youngest child to be granted a licence was seven years old, figures obtained by BBC News show. Last year, the Association of Chief Police Officers suggested that under-10s are banned from using shotguns”.
James Purdey shotgun, by eschulz
At first glance, the idea of a seven-year-old wielding a shot-gun is somewhat alarming.
But on the other hand, this isn’t a bunch of kids running around a playground packing heat – these are either children learning a sport – just like football, cricket, skiing, or badminton. Or archery, which I myself used to do in our back garden when I was seven. Or they’re children living on farms, where gun use is a standard tool of the job, like a plough or a tractor, learning how to carry out the family business.
Just because they have a firearms certificate, that doesn’t mean they keep a sawn-off in the toy cupboard next to the action man, rather they have access to a weapon which is constantly kept under lock and key when not in use, and when is being used it is done so completely under close adult supervision.
In short, these are children who are being brought up to have nothing but a healthy respect for firearms, to understand fully the implications and responsibilities of their use, and to understand that a gun is not a toy.
Compare that with 90% of other children, who grow up with toy guns to play with, who run around playgrounds shooting each other in games of cowboys and Indians, or cops and robbers. Or indeed sit in their bedroom in front of a screen laser-blasting the invading Ayleeyons, or their friends in networked Call of Duty. Objectively, which is actually worse?
The cornerstone of a liberal democracy is freedom, where legislation is only enacted to protect the public, and new legislation is only introduced in response to clear problems, and only then introduced in a considered manner after full weighing up of the pros and the cons.
So, alarming as a 12 year old having a firearms certificate might seem, in the absence of any problems having manifested as a result of it, what objectively is the problem?
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