A country who sells weapons over the counter to anybody who wants one is stumped at how it can be home to so many fatal shootings.
This country has the highest number of gun fatalities in the world, by a long way, while simultaneously having very lax laws on the purchasing of firearms.
However, arms manufacturers insist that their products are nothing to do with this. “Hell no,” said gun shop owner Will Sellitcha. “Too many people here are blaming guns for gun deaths. Acting like guns think for themselves. No gun ever got up in the morning and said, ‘you know what, I’m gonna go and shoot some good honest citizens today no sirree, it’s people who do that. Bad people.”
Technically this statement is true enough. So what is Mr Sellitcha doing to stop guns getting into the hands of bad people?
“That goes right against the values of our glorious constitution,” he said. “The second amendment guarantees the right to bear arms. Besides, I don’t know who the bad guys are. Don’t look at me. I’m just selling my wares tryin’ to make a livin’ here, I got profits to think about. A sale is a sale. It’s not my fault if someone buys a gun and goes crazy with it.”
Well, he could always try and find out if the buyer is likely to do something with fatal consequences.
“You mean turn away a profit?” Mr Sellitcha retorted, with a look of horror on his face. “That’s not the ‘Murican way!”
Evidently not. It was clear he was not open to the simple and obvious solution. I would have accused him of sticking his head in the sand like an ostrich, but I suspected he’d think I was talking about the place where kangaroos live.
