Guns again.

Another random shooting, this time in Illinois, has resulted in five dead plus the killer. He was apparently a model student, highly regarded by his teachers but was on medication - it's not specified in the news what the medication treated - which he had stopped taking.

I thought there were checks in place over there? I thought you had to wait, after ordering a gun, before you could collect it? If this guy was on medication for an aberrant mental condition (that's the impression I get from the news) did nobody think to check? It's all very well having 'the right to bear arms' but surely there are some cases where it's legitimate to restrict that right?

He bought his guns legally. Now the 'ban-guns' outcry is starting up again. Well, we banned guns here in the UK even though few people owned them anyway. I've never owned one. You can learn from our example.

Gun crime in the UK is at an all-time high. The criminals never obtained their guns legally in the first place. Banning them simply meant that the law-abiding handed theirs in. The criminals didn't. Now, you'd think that would have been obvious to everyone, right? Remember though, this is the government that now proposes to control juvenile crime by asking them awfully nicely if they wouldn't mind just not being so downright wicked. That should give you an idea of the sort of people who are in charge here.

Once the law-abiding handed in their guns, the criminals could be certain that they were now the only ones armed. They've been taking full advantage of this ever since.

There are no checks, no waiting periods, no restriction on gun-buying in the UK. The transactions take place in back-alleys and bars. The guns don't come with any registration or training and there is no guarantee they won't explode the first time you pull the trigger. Naturally, the only people buying them now are criminals. We ordinary folk aren't allowed them.

The school shooting in Illinois was a terrible event. There have been others in the past and there will no doubt be more in future. Before you Americans adopt the 'ban-guns' response, watch the British press for news.

We have no guns, yet there are more shootings now than ever before. Criminals, by definition, do not do what the law says. Their guns weren't legal in the first place.

Don't ban your guns. Improve your checking systems.