I don't understand...

OK, I'm going to post this and not worry about who agrees with me.  I feel strongly about it.  This is a comment I wrote on Facebook on a friend's status on the day of the Newtown tragedy.  It's not very eloquent, but it's what I feel.

I just don't understand the strength of some people's resistance to gun control. I am ok with people owning guns, but I think it should be harder to get one. I also think that assault weapons should be restricted a LOT. Like to the military and that's about it. There is no reason an average private citizen needs one of those. A hunting rifle, sure. A handgun, ok in some situations. But something that is loaded in ROUNDS rather than single bullets has no purpose but to hit and kill as many people as possible in a short amount of time - not even skill in shooting required.

Sure, people will find ways of getting guns illegally, but if it's harder to get one there won't be nearly as many of them out there to be gotten. Just think how much less damage that Batman lunatic could have done if he'd been using a handgun instead. Even two-fisting it, he could not have killed as many people. Reloading takes more time, a person shot with a single bullet probably has a better chance of survival than one who is sprayed with many of them, and the time between shots would mean more time for hitting the deck.

I also think the issue of mental illness is the humongous elephant in the room every time a shooting like this happens. We haven't done anything about our gun policies, but at least we bother arguing vociferously about them for a few days afterwards. Almost every shooting like this involves known or suspected mental illness in the shooter. Sometimes the idea of mental health screenings for gun owners is tossed around, but you don't hear much talk about getting to the root of the problem. Why was this mentally ill person not getting treatment? Even when no violence results, untreated mental illness can cause a lot of tragedy and anguish, and we just ignore it.

So the usual steps are as follows:

1. Terrible shooting occurs.
2. People argue about guns.
3. No legislation or changes in policy occur.
4. Some time passes.
5. Another shooting occurs.
6. Rinse and repeat.

I probably sound cynical, but I really find this and other recent shootings, as well as the usual succession of events that follows, incredibly sad and frustrating. We could do something about it and we don't. And what am *I* doing about it? Just the same as everybody else, so I am no better. I feel entirely helpless and 20 children who were alive first thing this morning are now dead.

Top Gear

I started watching the BBC's Top Gear a few years ago at the recommendation of my sister.  It's available in the US via Netflix Instant Streaming and BBC America.  For those unfamiliar with the show, it's about cars.  Super cars, luxury cars, practical cars, and cheap cars.  The show features a variety of segments ranging from serious analysis of very expensive super cars to ridiculous contests in which the three presenters compete to see who can buy the best 1,000-pound car, as determined by a number of challenges that usually end in some form of hilarious disaster.

I don't care about cars, or at least I didn't before I watched Top Gear.  Now, however, although I am far from being a petrol head, I can identify a car by its badge, I know what car I would buy if I were a multimillionaire (Aston Martin DB-9), and I know a bit of automotive and racing terminology.

One of the highlights of the show is the segment called "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car," which is just what it sounds like.  Top Gear has its own track, and a reasonably-priced car.  Their "tame racing driver," an anonymous and evidently mute, helmeted professional called The Stig, trains the star how to drive on a track.  He or she then takes a trip around the track as fast as possible and the lap time is recorded and compared to other stars who have raced the same car around the same track.  The segment always begins with Jeremy Clarkson interviewing the star.  This part can be boring if you're not familiar with the person, but then the star and the audience view the lap and the time is revealed.  Stars in this segment always talk about how good The Stig is at teaching them how to drive around a racetrack.  As far as I can see, much of it goes completely against the rules you would normally follow to 1) avoid accidents and 2) not destroy your own car prematurely.  But it sounds fantastic.  I would love to have The Stig teach me what to do, put on a helmet, strap into the Suzuki Liana or the Chevrolet Lacetti or the Kia Cee'd, and drive like a lunatic.  Unfortunately, I'm an ordinary American woman who might qualify for Top Gear: Tallahassee by virtue of some childhood fame in the form of several trips to the National Spelling Bee, but the chances of my ever being under the tutelage of The Stig are quite slim.  Still, it doesn't dim my enjoyment of the show.  It's good to have some silly and unlikely fantasies.  Keeps the imagination warmed up and ready to drive off in a cloud of tire smoke.