Advice from the land of kangaroos

It seems that some of our friends down under have determined where to place the blame for a psychopathic loser's atrocity in the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska. It would be, of course, barbaric and simple-minded to blame this monstrous act on its perpetrator--only someone caught up in America's primitive, brutal gun culture would fail to realize that it was not really his fault. Nope--the real culprit here is . . . Nebraska's concealed carry law.

NEBRASKA, the farming state with the highest per capita gun ownership in the US, began the year with LB-454, a new state law allowing people 21 years and over to carry a concealed handgun pretty much wherever they go.

Applicants must pass a routine police check, complete a basic handgun training course (most are run by ex-cops) and pay $US100 ($115) for a five-year permit. It's as simple as that.

Nebraska marked the end of the year yesterday with a bloodbath at the Westroads shopping mall in Omaha, the state's largest city. Eight people were shot dead and several others are fighting for their lives.

The connection, I'm sure everyone realizes, is obvious. What worries me, though, is that some loudmouth troublemakers will confuse the issue by pointing out trivial little facts, such as:

A) The killer could not even legally buy or possess a gun, much less obtain a concealed carry license;

B) The killer, being on a mission to kill as many people as possible, and then kill himself, would hardly seem to have had much reason to be concerned with concealed carry laws;

C) This is the big one, folks--Westroads Mall policy prohibited concealed carry, even by licensees, and that prohibition carried the force of law.

Never mind all that--concealed carry kills--we know it does, and only a blood thirsty American gun fetishist would demand, you know . . . evidence.

There might be some meaning to this tragic waste of life if all over the Cornhusk state - the only US jurisdiction that still executes prisoners by frying them in the electric chair - the gun-culture penny was to finally drop.

Of course that's the meaning we must draw from this--that makes much more sense than questioning the mall's "No Guns" policy. Oops--too late, it seems.

Sadly, that is unlikely to be the case. Out in the American Midwest tragedies such as Westroads and the Virginia Tech massacre in April, when 32 people were killed, often serve to reinforce the convictions of gun nuts who believe that being armed is not just a constitutional right but goddamn common sense, too.

Hmm--the Midwest would seem an odd place to put Virginia Tech, but who can argue with the assertion that it's nutty to argue that "being armed is a Constitutional right," just because it's . . . listed in the Constitution as a right (of the People, Dennis) that shall not be infringed? And certainly only a gun nut would argue that it's "goddamn common sense" that being the helpless prey of an armed psychopath is more dangerous than being able to return fire.

Thanks, Australia--that should straighten us out.