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180 degrees
Matthew Hall presents a first-hand look at world events from a different angle. Follow @Matthew_HallGun control 'debate' shows America really is, foreign
15 January 2013 | 7:31 | Source: Matt Hall, SBS
Lack of real gun control debate shows America really is a foreign
country.
Some kind of special relationship is often touted between our three countries. The US values Australia and the UK as political and military allies and there is usually non-flinching support for whatever political path one may take in global politics (see Iraq and Afghanistan).
It’s assumed we share language (more or less), social cultural, history and, importantly, values. Except, of course, we don’t at all and that has never been more highlighted than the attempt to debate gun rights.
Piers Morgan, a former (very) British newspaper editor who now hosts a talk show on CNN in the US and internationally, has seen the gun debate as an opportunity to fly a flag and make it a righteous cause.
He has the platform to influence and good for him. Over the past few months his guests have included passionate reformers of gun laws (boring) and bat-crap crazy supporters of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms (must see).
Morgan’s campaign (and it is a campaign) angered the pro-gun crowd so much that some people launched a petition to the White House calling for Morgan to be deported. The White House has to respond to any petition that gains over 25, 000 signatures, and when it topped over 100,000 signatures gained huge publicity. The White House declined to deport Morgan.
Morgan, knowing a good fight makes for good ratings, invited Alex Jones, a co-author of the petition, to discuss the issue of gun control on his show. The interview quickly became a car crash and absolutely compelling viewing.
Part One:
Part Two:
Jones, who runs a website called inforwars.com, appears to be a paranoid delusional conspiracy theorist but, while many of us may dismiss him as such, he is not without support. In that world, it is Morgan who is nuts and not understanding the situation. That’s what Morgan’s case may underestimate – a large significant chunk of America does not see the world as the rest of the world does. And it turns out Australia and Britain, especially, are not like the US at all. America really is a foreign country.
Morgan has taken on other pro-gun lobbyists with strong words that make for great theatre but likely does little but cement already entrenched views: guns are bad/guns are great.
Here is Morgan with Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America. Pratt’s tone makes him more effective in not appearing crazy.
Here’s aged rocker Ted Nugent, a big gun advocate, using the term “Limey friend” against Morgan. “Suck on my machine gun,” Nugent says.
For all his Englishness, Morgan is now prey for those who wish to use his “foreignness” and the aspect of being “not-one-of-us” as a reason to ignore his not unreasonable perspective on guns in America.
Andrew Sullivan, a widely read blogger with a large enough audience he’s taking his work from The Daily Beast website to place behind his own paywall, sees value in attacking Morgan as a man rather than discussing the issues (considering Morgan’s track record, this is not so hard).
For all that, few have still been able to answer an important question that remains after the mass shootings of 2012.
Are the lives of the children murdered in Newtown, Connecticut, worth the right for a civilian to own a semi-automatic weapon?
We’re waiting to discuss.
Join the Discussion
Your Comments
Previous 10 |
The demise of "the light on the hill" for a democratic/capitalistic society
I left the US to live in Australia in 1976, when I was 22. At that time it was not a foreign country in the gun situation or in anything else of substance. The change has been gradual ever since, but, nevertheless, mind-boggling remarkable. It is now, and has been for quite some time, a foreign country. And as one who grew up in its post- WWII magnificence of spirit (Marshall Plan, Peace Corps, et.al.) and nurtured on it's "light on the hill" nature, I cannot help but cry.
Mr
The Australian Reporter Author here is clearly out of his depth. In 1996 "There was no Gun Debate in Australia" Period A brought and paid for Media coalition now increasingly owned by GoldMan Sachs. Whipped up such biased and distorted views of law abiding gun owners in Australia. That gun owners were made to feel like second class citizens. SSAA had a Australian Pro-Gun March in Sydney grided and assessed by an independant organisation. Which was far larger than any Anti Vietnam Marches.
Guns and America.
I find it hard to understand Americans who argue for the right to arm themselves in their own country. Are they really that unsafe? American soldiers killed in the Iraq war since 2003 = 4488. Americans killed in the U.S by gun violence since 2003 = 250,000. That is the combined populations of Wagga Wagga, Coffs Harbour, Gladstone, Mildura, and Shepparton. Americans would be safer living in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Missing the point
Any form of technology, and a gun is a highly effective form of technology, if applied without ethical constraints, leads to disaster; see cars driven by immature drivers, or IT in the hands of hackers, etc. The real problem is to identify where and how our ethical basis for social co-existence is formed; or what contribution does our glorification of violence make to the abuse of guns? Let’s start there to solve the problem.
The US truly is different from the UK and Oz
The author is correct. US citizens have been able to resist the forces of statism in some areas in which the citizens of the U.K. and Australia have sadly succumb. It's a shame that Matt views this as a negative and complains about the US instead of being a voice for the freedom of Aussies.
Down with Reactionary Gun Control laws
America has a crisis state sanctioned of police oppression in the states of New York, Chicago and Oakland. More than such tragic events carried out by crazies, there are more conscious massacres, brutalization and carried out with impunity by the trigger happy police. They carried out regular massacres of children with their drone attacks in foreign countries. If gun control laws get passed, this would result in many people (especially black and latino Americans) losing their basic rights
Guns, guns and more guns
I live in Canada, our guns are in the possession of criminals, who shoot each other, by cops, who rarely shoot anyone and by hunters who shoot wild game. I don't feel threatened by any of them because none of them are after me. When in the US, I feel threatened by every one. Where in the hell is this world coming too!!
Important Question
The lives of the children murdered versus the right of civilians to own a semi-auto firearm is not as clear cut as you make it out to be. The fact of the matter is that banning semi-auto firearms does very little to reduce the possibility that someone who is determined to acquire one can. So the question really is, is it worth banning a type firearm that a great number of people enjoy using for sport and self defense on the near zero chance that it could stop the next nutjob who wants to kill
Again?
Cmon SBS. Im sure you can do better than select youtube clips to set up your straw man. Piers Morgan does the Aussie media style set up of leading emotive questions while avoiding facts. something the author of this article does briliantly. You want to concerntrate on guns but ignore the real problem. The second and third clip you show demonstrate this perfectly.
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