Robin Agnew
I'm about finished with the new Peter Robinson book, Bad Boy, which, along with the usual excellent writing includes a slice of British law I wasn't so familiar with. The opening sequence of the book involves a mother turning in her daughter for possessing a hand gun, something which is completely illegal in the U.K. The mother's action will probably result in the daughter's doing time in jail. The daughter is a young woman, not a teenager.
The stark contrast to the U.S. really got me thinking. I've recently been re-watching NYPD Blue (did you know only 6 seasons are available on DVD? But that's another story)and in one of the episodes an old neighbor of Bobby's (played so entrancingly by Jimmy Smits) comes to him in anguish: she's found a gun in her son's room. It's really the same situation, but the results are far different.
Bobby, whose dead wife was a friend of the woman's, agrees to talk to her son who is all of 11 or 12. The woman is divorced or widowed, I can't remember which one, but in any case Bobby steps in as a strong male figure. And in the U.S. merely being in possession of a handgun won't put you in prison.
The boy (who I mentioned was on the cusp of 12) just won't listen to Bobby, and naturally nothing good comes of it. It "ends in tears", you might say, or in this case with a schoolyard shooting. In Robinson's book it doesn't end well either, with an accidental death, a kidnapping and the shooting of a police officer. Despite the different laws the results are still catastrophic.
I'm a pretty firm advocate of gun control myself but these two thoughtful sources made me think about it from several points of view. Either way though, possessing the gun ended in tears. I liked considering the British law; on the one hand, it seems reasonable, on another, several incidents in the book are practically precipitated because the officers involved don't have guns. I'm not sure I have a point, or even a conclusion, but I appreciated Robinson's thoughtful story and insight into a way of doing things that's a little bit different.
