First up, I don’t like mixing my cycling with politics. I cycle to escape the rest of the world and it’s problems – so this will be short and a one off. Here goes. I love guns. I even did a little sporting target shooting as a junior (not bad with a pistol, rubbish with a shotgun). I have also spent near a decade working in secondary schools. Arming teachers is one of the single most stupid ideas ever. Ever. If that’s the solution, then something else is fundamentally broken in the society we live in (something deeper than mere gun control).
Do we tool up our child care centre workers too? Hospitals? Shopping centres? Cafes? Hair salons? Public parks? Tennis clubs? Dog off leash areas? Just make everyone carry an AR-15 at all times? Where does it stop?
Road.cc recently published a list of cycling brands whose parent company supports the NRA, makes most of it’s profit from guns and also heavily lobbies the US government on relaxing gun laws. Should you boycott them? Well, that’s your moral decision and I won’t comment. Knowledge is power though, so you should at least know which brands they are.
Giro, Bell, Blackburn, CoPilot, Bolle and Camelbak are all owned by Vista Outdoor – one of the largest weapons and ammunition makers in the USA.
(and a bunch of other brands too)
I live down the road from the site of Australia’s worst mass shooting ever, one that instigated change. It may have been a bit “knee jerk” at the time, but the gun law changes after the Port Arthur massacre have meant that guns are harder to come by (for law and non-law abiding citizens).
Can you still own a gun here? Yes. A semi-automatic assault rifle? No. Tough police checks and tight license control? Yes. Buy a gun at the supermarket? No. A similar massacre hasn’t happened again since.
Anyway, enough. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter. I’m off to turn the pedals for a bit and tune out from the rest of the world. Enjoy your weekend.
Tempo Cyclist - Tasmania 
Boycott? That’s my new shopping list. The United States is different from all other countries on Earth. Our rights are not granted by politicians or bureaucracies. Our Constitution is a limit on our Government because the aim of our Founding was that we would remain free, forever. Fortunately, our Founders paid attention to all form of dictatorships and authoritarian governments. What is the first thing the government restricts when it seeks to rule its citizens with an iron fist? Religion and the Press. Our First Amendment. What’s the second? Arms. Our Second Amendment. We can talk all kinds of solutions, they’re aplenty. In fact, the shooting you write about happened because our bureaucracy didn’t do it’s job. We have laws on the books already that restrict sales of firearms to evil people like that loser but the government that you suggest restrict our right to keep and bear arms is what failed to do its job in the first place.
Interestingly, you can’t get an automatic AK-47 in France either, but guess what? 132 dead, wasn’t it?
So, brother, this is a lot deeper than what your news, half way around the world, will take the time to properly put into context. I’ll make you a deal. If
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Oops… If you won’t assume that were all ignorant gun-toting hicks, we won’t hold your ignorance of us against you.
You’re getting half the story from a media who seeks to keep as many people ignorant of how things really work as possible. That’s not your fault – but it’s not ours either. 👍
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Oh I have no issues with people being free to own guns. In fact I think people should own and know how to use and respect firearms. I did and I haven’t shot up a school. But there’s a limit. The problem isn’t just guns, but guns and the system are part of the problem.
A society where school shootings are even a thing has bigger problems than just guns, but that’s a whole other topic! When the solutions offered to school shootings is to give teachers guns, there’s a deeper problem at heart. That needs to be addressed. But we’ll probably have to agree to disagree on that one. 😉
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I agree with most of what you said, but you’re lacking context because American politics is freaking nuts. See, schools are labeled “gun free zones”, our police call gun free zones “criminal enterprise zones” because crooks have free reign. They don’t care. If our politicians weren’t such sissies, they’d make it an instant death sentence for anyone who commits a murder in a gun free zone. Making this go away is easy but our politicians like us divided, pissed off and/or scared.
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France was an attack by a terrorist organisation, plus you can buy AK’s freely in other European countries and just drive across. Slightly different.
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Not slightly different, exactly the same. Hell brother, my government allowed gun traffickers to sell American rifles in Mexico to criminals so that they would have an argument to ban guns (I’m not kidding, the name of the operation was Fast and Furious – Obama administration, Eric Holder – Google it, you’ll $#!+). Anyway, if our government did THAT, how long before they go one step further? It’s literally bat-$#!+ crazy, man.
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I don’t claim to understand politics, but American politics just seems another level of crazy ( which is why I write about cycling, lol). 😂
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You and me both, brother.
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