A little rant about guns.

I watched a news broadcast about preparations for the Republican congress in Cleveland, Ohio. There they will anoint (yes, that was the term the newsman used! I was surprised too.) Donald Trump as their candidate for the presidency of the USA. 

The mayor of Cleveland has requested federal troops to help with the policing of the event. He is not sure that his own police force will be sufficient for the job. Well, it is a pretty high-powered event after all. 

They are expecting anti-Trump demonstrations, pro-Trump demonstrations, anti-racist demonstrations, in fact almost any kind of demonstration you can think of. A Biker gang had promised to attend, pro-Trump of course, to keep an eye on the anti-Trump demonstrators. That should help the atmosphere no end! I have seen Sons of Anarchy! I love the way groups like this claim to be protecting the morals of the country. 

And then there is another big factor that comes into play. Ohio is an open-gun-carrying state. This means that they interpret "the right to bear arms" as meaning that people can carry guns around in plain sight all the time. Which means, I suppose, that at least you know that someone is armed and potentially dangerous. 

Apparently there will be no guns allowed in the congress hall. I was going to say that surely they did not expect any problems in there. Surely they are all Republicans, all on the same side. But I suppose that some gun-toting enthusiasts might just start firing into the air out of sheer glee and enthusiasm! 

The mayor, however, does not feel it is correct to impinge on the people's right to bear arms and so there will be no restrictions on gun toting on the streets of Cleveland. Oh, except that he has appealed to the good folk to leave their "long" guns at home: hunting rifles, assault rifles and so on. Just small hand guns please! 

Now, I can understand that people who go out hunting need the appropriate guns. Surely, though, such guns should be kept in a locked cabinet between bouts of hunting. That seems fairly logical. Why should anyone need to carry them through the streets of Cleveland? 

And as for assault rifles! Well! Why does any ordinary citizen, peace-loving or not, need an assault rifle? Why not hand-held missile launchers? Your very own nuclear weapons? 

I suppose one reason why I fail to understand the need to own such things, indeed to own any kind of gun, is that the most aggressive type of "weaponry" we have in the house are kitchen knives (not always as sharp as we might like), umbrellas (do they count? Even the folding type could serve as cudgels!) and an old rounders bat belonging to our daughter. 

Surely it not beyond the limits of even the American government to change the constitution so that it gives people the right to bear arms (assuming that they still need it) but NOT actual weapons of war!