Peter Rhodes on gun law, censored obituaries and how Cop26 came to Edinburgh, er, Glasgow
Quote of the week: “Can I just say that this kind of thing makes life very difficult for satirists?” Sketch writer Robert Hutton, commenting on CNN's report that Cop26 – in Glasgow - was actually happening in Edinburgh.
Gun law is changing. Following summer's mass shooting in Plymouth, the Home Office says no one will be given a firearms licence unless the police have considered whether the applicant has any relevant medical history - including mental health, neurological conditions or substance abuse.
And not before time. There are broadly two sorts of people who want to own guns. The first have a genuine interest in farming, hunting, clay-pigeon shooting or other pursuits. The second are barking mad. The first problem is knowing which is which.
The second problem is that nothing is more likely to tip a potentially dodgy gun owner over the brink than the prospect of having his licence cancelled or his gun taken away. It is one thing to pass new rules controlling firearms. It is quite another thing to enforce it. I would not want to be the copper sent to confiscate the pump-action shotgun of a loner who has just failed his mental assessment.
Still on weapons, Alec Baldwin describes his accidental shooting of two movie workers on a film set, resulting in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, as “a one in a trillion event.” Does anyone trust his maths? It is already known that live and blank bullets were taken on to the same film set and that stage pistols were capable of firing both types. Little by little, the ideal conditions were created for disaster, each error turning the odds from a trillion-to-one against into a dead-cert accumulator.
I wrote a few days ago about the taboo against never speaking ill of the dead. I should have added that even if you do speak ill of the dead, your words may be censored. Back in the 1980s my father was approached by a newspaper for a quote about a local personality who had died suddenly. He cheerfully obliged.
Curiously, my father's tribute to the dear departed never made it into print. His exact words to the reporter were: “You can quote me as saying that he was a complete s*** and the world is a much better place for his passing.”
