While he might not agree with the laws, he will agree I bet that his disagreement with our laws is his opinion and not because he's an American looking in from the outside.
I'm pretty sure I didn't say that.
I never said everyone agrees with the laws here,
No offense, but that's sure what it reads like when you write, "In England we like it this way."
Blanket disapproval from abroad is unfair.
I'm not questioning that it feels unfair to you. I understand where you're coming from. However, if you have some level of expectation of empathy from the OP, then you might have some level of empathy yourself for the OP. You feel a righteous indignation at an "outsider" questioning your nation's decisions. That's understandable. However, it also seems pretty likely that the OP feels an equal righteous indignation at what he believes is an unconscionable and immoral theft of basic human rights to effective self defense by a government against its citizens.
Would you feel righteous indignation, as an outsider looking in, against a nation which still supported slavery, ritual murder, denial of the right to vote, or [fill-in-the-blank]? Would you call violations of what you consider to be basic human rights enjoyed by everyone in your nation as "horror stories" and would you have any qualms whatsoever about decrying such abuses (in your estimation) in front of a person from that nation? Sure they might feel "insulted" by the "outsider" but would you care? Do you have any problem with stating that sharia requirements that women wear a burka or governments which accept "honor killings/mutilations" are "horror stories" and what would be your response to someone from said nation told you that such blanket disapproval from abroad was unfair?
Heck, we see it here in the U.S. too. With the "healthcare reform" debate going on, I've see a lot of "outsiders" sniping in their opinions of the "horror stories" that we don't have Nationalized Single Payer Health Care. In general, we want to tell them to stuff it and stay in their own nation while we work on ours. Is that what these "outsiders" should do? Just stfu?
For that matter, we see the same thing directed at us, here in the U.S., on exactly the same topic: Firearms. I can't tell you how many times I've read some international writer with passionate feelings on the subject bemoaning the "horror stories" of the U.S. having "rampant gun crime" or whatever straw man floats the argument. Should the just stfu?
I'll leave aside all the hand-wringing over "majority wanted it, minority can suck it up or leave." We get that here in the U.S. too, from both sides of our political aisle.
For that matter, I'll leave aside the matter. I just don't have the stamina for another one of these international political correctness debates. I'm tired.
Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
