And I thought we were the only over-reactionary country in Europe. After a horrific school shooting in March, the German government has announce it’s going to make it more difficult to obtain a gun. It’s also toying with making home gun safes mandatorily biometric – so you have to open them with your thumbprint and not a key.
OK, I can go with that. If weapons are harder to get hold of through legal means or through theft then nutjobs will find it more difficult to go on a rampage.
However, they’re also planning to ban all laser tag and paintball across the country as well. The ****? That’s about as mad as, say, banning all depictions of swastikas in a vain hope that everyone will forget about Hitler. Oh, wait – they did that as well.
Coming up next, if nobody stops them I’m sure, will be a complete ban on violent computer games. And films. Every re-released DVD in Germany which features a handgun will have digital jiggery-pokery performed on them to change the firearms into radios or something. Mr Spielberg will be minted from the royalties from that idea.
Seriously, it was an awful thing to happen to any community. But does anyone really think that banning paintball will have any effect at all?
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I try to steer clear of these horrific shooting / violence stories, they make me sick.
You’re right, these kneejerk actions serve no purpose than making the government feel better about themselves. “Hey, at least we’re doing something.” They fail to see that it’s something stupid.
Re: the swastika, it was a buddhist symbol LONG before Hitler used it for his evil purpose. The freakin’ bastard couldn’t even come up with something original.
And he couldn’t even draw it the correct way round…
One of our directors when on BBC Radio 4 to talk about this ban, as there was talk for a time of politicians introducing a similar ban in the UK.
My opinion is it’s lazy short sighted politic’s. No-one likes to hear about horrible shootings like these but I very much doubt that banning paintbal will have any effect on these events. The same M.P’s should use them funds to rectifying the underlying reasons as to why people like this exist in modern societies.
Oliver – you certainly won’t get any argument from me on those scores. They may as well ban all violent computer games, violence on TV, cartoons and children from playing “Japs and Commandos” in the playground. Then the world will be completely safe. Obviously.
Can you imagine, no more Tom and Jerry, or Captain Planet, but then again
I was tramuatised by the voilent atrocities that Captain planet inflicted on them baddies.
Olly
There has been at least one case of a kid smacking another one with a hammers because he “saw it on Tom & Jerry”. This is down to him being pre-school and perhaps to bad parenting. It didn’t stop the alarmist nutcases immediately demanding a ban on all cartoons on children’s TV.
Makes me want to go round to their houses and remove all their skin with a scalpel, then drive over them with a tank. And gouge out their eyeballs.
It’s OK. I saw that on Itchy & Scratchy once.