I take the point about paranoia and fear and loathing of one’s own countrymen and women. I also find it interesting how differently Americans and Australians understand guns themselves. Americans seem to view them from the handle end (or should that be the trigger? What’s a gun handle called anyway? Who cares?) while Australians are more concerned with where the bullets will end up.

They talk about gun ownership, we talk about people getting shot. They talk about guns in the context of defending themselves, we talk about them in the context murder, suicide and domestic violence.

Evidence shows that where there are severe restrictions on fire-arms, the number of gun related deaths (and incidents) are massively reduced.

It’s a total no-brainer of a policy.

I read people like them constantly on the expat Philippines forums, panic-stricken when they realise they’re not allowed to own guns there. “Where can i buy a taser?” “Anyone know where I can get some mace?” “Does oven cleaner work quickly enough to use as a weapon?” “Are sword-sticks legal?”

It was fascinating how some of the commenters managed to twist logic so completely that they, huddling in their fortresses clutching their arsenals, were heroically brave and free whereas somehow other people, who wandered around the whole world without so much as a Swiss army knife, were gutless hippies who would curl into a ball at the first whiff of gunpowder.

What a fucked-up country.