The Scots don't get it

The Scotsman provides us with a European's eye view of gun control in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech slayings:

WHEN A former Miss America was confronted by a thief in her Kentucky barn last week, the plucky 82-year-old knew just how to react. Venus Ramey, whose figure adorned Second World War B52 bombers, pulled out her .38 calibre handgun, leaned on her walking frame to steady her aim and coolly shot out the tyres of the startled intruder's getaway vehicle. She then held him at gunpoint, flagged down a motorist to raise the alarm and calmly waited until the sheriff arrived.

The story was celebrated as an example of the unquenchable American frontier spirit and the inalienable constitutional right to defend hearth and home with firearms.

Coming just a few days after South Korean student Cho Seung-Hui used a handgun to slay 32 fellow students and teachers on the campus of Virginia Tech, there can be no clearer example of America's schizophrenia towards gun control.

Though shooting sprees are scarcely unknown in the US, America was shocked by the scale of the tragedy visited upon Virginia Tech and the town of Blacksburg last week. Yet despite the widespread revulsion at the carnage, perhaps the most striking element of the reaction was that there was, in fact, very little official response to the horror.

Because of the stranglehold that the gun lobby holds over Washington's corridors of power, the torpor goes to the very top of American politics. At the memorial service last Tuesday, President Bush predicted that "when a guy walks in and shoots 32 people it's going to cause there to be a lot of policy debate" but he was quick to suggest that any such debate would be premature.

Observe how the real lesson to be learned by comparing Venus Ramey's experience with that of Virginia Tech utterly escapes the Scotsman's notice. Ms. Ramey had a gun and so she ended the encounter calmly waiting for the police to come and take away the criminal who threatened her. the students and faculty at Virginia Tech were disarmed by law and so could only stand helpless as a man who was willing to disregard the law shot them down like targets in a shooting gallery.

It is as though the left, in Europe or in America, has eyes which cannot see the truth even when it is staring them in the face.

To all the Europeans and other leftists who can not understand why Americans will not surrender their rights because of the actions of a microscopically small percentage of people who committ acts of mindless violence let me try to explain.

Its like this. We are human beings not cattle. Free man and women possess the means and the will to defend themselves. Sheep cluster in flocks and bleat for the protection of the shepherd and the sheepdog.

There was a time when the Scots understood this. When men like William Wallace and Robert McGregor represented Scottish manhood. Apparently that time is past.

I weep for its passing.