Mike Packwood

I know that there is a piece of paper, some 200 years old, that guarantees the right to bears arms, but really – it’s a very old piece of paper, and like all rules and laws, you’re allowed to change them from time to time. I also know that it’s a hopeless argument. If private guns were banned outright today it would take centuries to get rid of them all. There are, I understand, more guns in the US than people. The gun lobby is so politically and financially powerful that change is unlikely anytime soon. But, people of the USofA, I’ve got to tell you that from where I’m sitting – 3000 miles away admittedly – your stance is completely impossible to fathom. Every day there are mass killings in the States, and every one of them is perversely used to perpetuate the myth that allowing everyone to have a gun will somehow stop the bad guys from using theirs. There is simply no evidence for that. Give me one example where the horror of a mass shooting has been stopped because ordi

Two things you're never meant to discuss in public - politics and religion. Well I've had a crack at politics recently and so hot on the heels of that, I have a question about religion. My little space on the internet is normally filled with holiday snaps, pictures of my latest car or a good moan about my football team. I never attempt anything particularly serious and actually I’m a bit worried about posting this – but if you’re reading it I guess I have. . I shouldn’t be worried. I live in the UK. I can say what I want and believe what I like so long as I don’t deliberately offend anyone or break any laws. That’s one of the best things about living here - generally speaking, despite all our faults, we usually rub along really well with our neighbours. We do, don’t we? So the question is: Why? I’m not a racist, or as far as I’m aware, not any sort of ’ist’. I guess I’m fundamentally a liberal. I try to see anyone’s point of view. I can see and understand good