Eclectica

Mostly cogent, most of the time.

BANG!

Three facts about the German school shooter, from the BBC:

One: “His main hobbies appeared to be shooting and spending hours on his computer.”

Hmmm, wonder which was more likely to have contributed to the shooting massacre?

Two: Investigators found “pornographic and violent films” on his computer.

This description covers almost the entirety of Hollywood’s output, so why mention it? Heck, they’d find porn and violent films on my computer too, and on the computer of just about every male in the WHOLE WORLD.

Three: “His father was a successful businessman who legally owned 15 weapons – including the Beretta handgun used on Wednesday – and belonged to a gun club that both attended regularly for shooting practice.”

So, to recap, which of these things do you think is most likely to have contributed to his shooting rampage – the fact that he spent a lot of time shooting and had easy access to loads of guns which his Dad encouraged him to shoot, or the fact that he liked porn and had seen some violent films (translation: he was male)?

Yet what does the German interior minister propose as a response? “I can’t see at all how any modification of the gun law could have changed anything about what has happened.”

No? You don’t think preventing people having loaded guns in their houses could have helped prevent the shooting massacre? What do you suggest then?

“Maybe we could look at restricting the availability of violent material, though.”

So now you know. Guns don’t kill people – computers with porn and pirated copies of Die Hard on them do.

That sound you hear is the door smacking the arse of sanity as it leaves the building.