lagopus, I admire your sturdy independence. I just wish it was more evident in the general population. In 1959 I went into Thomas Bland just off The Strand and bought a shotgun, no questions asked. I was nineteen. I didn't immediately bob the barrel and start robbing banks and I suspect that today most nineteen year olds wouldn't do that either. But something has changed. Not just in Britain but most of the Western world too. A new mindset. People presume criminal intent where none is present. For many years my work took me to the worst neighborhoods of Philadelphia. I always went armed and always expected the worst from the people who lived there. But in truth it was a tiny proportion of the population who were the bad actors. Most of the drug dealers weren't violent. They were just trying to make a living. Nevertheless, most of the cops who worked those streets had a terrible opinion of their fellow men. Dealing with assholes every day for a few years will have that effect. I think TV and the constant barrage of crime stories has had the same effect on John Q. Public. Political hacks respond with "legislative solutions". People are no worse nor better now than they've ever been. It's just that the new civic religion has new rules.
