Crazy people live in the UK

I just read with amazement today that a poster advertising a film in Britain has been complained about and criticised by the advertising watchdog - the ASA.

Apparently the advert has a picture of some actress holding a gun and the advert has been ruled as unsuitable for young children because it makes guns attractive.

The exact text from the ASA reads: "We concluded that the ads were not suitable to be seen by children because they could be seen to condone violence by glorifying or glamorising the use of guns."

The exact text of the complaints and the responses follows (source: http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44931.htm)

It just strikes me that the fear of guns in Britain has reached ridiculous paranoic levels. To cap it all, this is not a real gun but a picture and not even a picture of a real gun. Hollywood actors and actresses are the kind of people you wouldn't let near a real gun since most are drug-addicts or retarded.

Britain has to come to its senses some time. It can't spend all eternity with its head in the sand!

Hi, Rhys,

So, about 10 years ago I was in Seoul, Korea giving a telecom seminar. One day I went to lunch with two of the engineers from the class, young fellows. The issue came up of some horrific gun crime that had just taken place in the US (and these guys new more about US current events than most Americans!).

I said, "Do you have gun crime here in Korea?" "Oh, yeah", said one of the guys. "Last year we had a case where a crazy guy got a gun somehow and shot his wife and a neighbor."

"No", the other guy said, "I think that was the year before last".

Britain has the most restrictive gun laws in the world. They banned pistols completely and since then murders carried out with pistols has risen every year. When I was young it was very unusual for anybody to be shot and surgeons would say they had one shooting every couple of years to deal with. Now they're running at 50-100 shooting deaths a year (maybe more). It's very interesting also that self-defence has all but been made illegal and at the same time police that shoot the wrong person always get away with it.

I can recall several cases including one where an unarmed and naked man came to investigate the sound of his front door being broken in and was shot from 5 feet away, straight in the head with no provocation and the police got away with it. Similarly the 8 year old boy alseep in bed who was shot dead by a policeman who entered the bedroom looking for an adult that wasn't even in the house. Then there was the unarmed film producer that was shot 6 times by armed police that claimed he was a terrorist despite the fact he was driving a car that was completely unlike the terrorist's vehicle and despite the fact he looked nothing like the terrorist they were looking for. Then there was a guy walking down the street carrying a table leg in a plastic bag who they shot dead.

Meanwhile the criminals are arming and over-arming. Kalazhnikovs, Uzis, Tek 9s, Mac 10s and a whole range of pistols are standard among the criminal community - all either manufactured in the UK or smuggled in together with their ammunition.

I find it very alarming that people in the UK seem to think a photo of a gun is bannable. What affects people more is the violent videos and video games in which young children are exposed to killing as the solution to a problem. Photos are meaningless in that context.

Rhys Sage said:

I just read with amazement today that a poster advertising a film in Britain has been complained about and criticised by the advertising watchdog - the ASA.

Apparently the advert has a picture of some actress holding a gun and the advert has been ruled as unsuitable for young children because it makes guns attractive.

The exact text from the ASA reads: "We concluded that the ads were not suitable to be seen by children because they could be seen to condone violence by glorifying or glamorising the use of guns."

The exact text of the complaints and the responses follows (source: http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44931.htm)

It just strikes me that the fear of guns in Britain has reached ridiculous paranoic levels. To cap it all, this is not a real gun but a picture and not even a picture of a real gun. Hollywood actors and actresses are the kind of people you wouldn't let near a real gun since most are drug-addicts or retarded.

Britain has to come to its senses some time. It can't spend all eternity with its head in the sand!

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Hi Rhys,

Crazy people live everywhere..., the UK is not (much ;-)) different.

However, you may be underestimating the power of an image. A gun in the hand of a public/popular figure may indeed imprint a wrong image of acceptability into the minds of susceptible people, children in particular but not exclusively. Think about the Marlboro man helping to get smoking a socially accepted activity, and mild/filtered sigarettes as a masculine thing. It works/worked.

Carrying guns, only increases the risk of them being used. Rarely does anyone benefit from the use of a gun for anything else than target shooting sports. Promoting their use for protection usually creates a self-delusional sense of security, with the statistics to disprove that illusion.

Bart

Bart_van_der_Wolf said:

Hi Rhys,

Crazy people live everywhere..., the UK is not (much ;-)) different.

However, you may be underestimating the power of an image. A gun in the hand of a public/popular figure may indeed imprint a wrong image of acceptability into the minds of susceptible people, children in particular but not exclusively. Think about the Marlboro man helping to get smoking a socially accepted activity, and mild/filtered sigarettes as a masculine thing. It works/worked.

Carrying guns, only increases the risk of them being used. Rarely does anyone benefit from the use of a gun for anything else than target shooting sports. Promoting their use for protection usually creates a self-delusional sense of security, with the statistics to disprove that illusion.

Bart

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I really didn't want to get into a carrying guns debate. I have seen the actual figures and they prove that carrying is better than not. By the way both my brother-in-law and I are carriers. He carries a .380 PPK and I carry a 9mm PM9. Carrying a gun means increased responsibility and you'll find CWP holders actively avoid confrontational situations. It's not that we particularly care whether we shoot somebody dead - it's just that we don't want to get into a situation where we have to defend ourselves. Thus you'll find CWP holders don't go down dark alleys at night, don't walk near groups of hoodlums etc. Frequently the simple act of drawing a pistol makes the bad guys run away. As my old bumper sticker said: "2.5 million defensive uses each year". That's 2.5 million gun owners alive each year because they were armed.

I've actually seen the Marlboro Cowboy cinema advert. It didn't make me want to smoke. When I was young, I'll admit I tried a cigarette because all the men at that time smoked. It was the most disgusting thing I'd ever tried and never tried nor wanted to try one again.

Rhys Sage said:

...I can recall several cases including one where an unarmed and naked man came to investigate the sound of his front door being broken in and was shot from 5 feet away, straight in the head with no provocation and the police got away with it. Similarly the 8 year old boy alseep in bed who was shot dead by a policeman who entered the bedroom looking for an adult that wasn't even in the house. Then there was the unarmed film producer that was shot 6 times by armed police that claimed he was a terrorist despite the fact he was driving a car that was completely unlike the terrorist's vehicle and despite the fact he looked nothing like the terrorist they were looking for. Then there was a guy walking down the street carrying a table leg in a plastic bag who they shot dead.
...

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Wow, that's terrible. I'm sure glad stuff like that doesn't happen here in the US!

Nill

Gun debate

When my husband and I met the LA Freeway shootings were rampant. I was living alone and several of my girlfriends were taking a class in gun safety and how to use one and then buying them. One of my acquantences in her 60's carries a small little gun in her purse and puts it in hand when she goes to the garage to get her car at the end of her workday.

We had a debate about using and having them. He said he spent time in the army and did not want a gun at home. I have gone out target shooting and learned to use a gun having been on the wrong end of one about 15 times working in the banking industry. One one time did the bank robber get hurt - shot by the guard outside the bank.

Guns do exist in society. We have become such a self centered world that we all need self protection, but I think that we have crossed the line from being civil. I am not sure there is an answer that will suit all of us.

For now the only thing I want to shoot are people with my Canon.

Hey, in this country, certain fundamentalists think a gay parade in New Orleans caused Hurricane Katrina. I, for one, think Brits are saner. Maybe that's just because their are fewer of them.

Cheers

Doug

doug anderson said:

Hey, in this country, certain fundamentalists think a gay parade in New Orleans caused Hurricane Katrina. I, for one, think Brits are saner. Maybe that's just because their are fewer of them.

Cheers

Doug

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Britain is a funny old place. It seems to welcome wierdos and reject normal people. Would you believe that minorities get a greater say in affairs than ordinary people? It's also a place where sanity gets turned on its head. Let me let you into today's example...

A computer game company decided to give away $80 of free fuel up to $40,000 to each motorist that called into a filling station. Obviously word got around and people turned up. Then we had all the whiny complaints about there being traffic jams - probably from people that didn't get their free fuel. An MP stood up on his soap box and declared the whole event to be dangerous and unsafe in order to grab himself some headline space. All the newpapers and media took a highly critical stance on the whole affair too.

Quite honestly I fail to see there was a problem at all. Sure - it might have taken people longer to drive around the area but there are always alternative routes, public transport is excellent and foot transport is very possible too.

As I said in my blog, Britain is whining again. So what's new? I am so sick of hearing people in Britain whining that it almost makes me want to puke each time I hear it!

I lived in Japan for two years and when my wife and I were preparing to come back to the US her employer, a Japanese women, tri-lingual and having lived in France for a few years, asked my wife if she was scared to go to the US because of all the violence and crime. When my wife told me about it we both had a chuckle, but it really got me thinking about what people in other countries think of us. Not our politics, but what day-to-day life is really like in the US. We put out some pretty awful ideas in a whole lot of movies so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she thought everybody was a gun-toting lunatic and you get mugged every couple of days. In contrast, guns are illegal to own or carry in Japan so the only people with guns are the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia) and the US soldiers on bases.

Dave McAllister said:

I lived in Japan for two years and when my wife and I were preparing to come back to the US her employer, a Japanese women, tri-lingual and having lived in France for a few years, asked my wife if she was scared to go to the US because of all the violence and crime. When my wife told me about it we both had a chuckle, but it really got me thinking about what people in other countries think of us. Not our politics, but what day-to-day life is really like in the US. We put out some pretty awful ideas in a whole lot of movies so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she thought everybody was a gun-toting lunatic and you get mugged every couple of days. In contrast, guns are illegal to own or carry in Japan so the only people with guns are the Yakuza (the Japanese mafia) and the US soldiers on bases.

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Isn't that the truth. Banning guns in Britain has led to an explosion of armed criminals. In fact there are more guns now that ever before and 90% illegally held by criminals.