Gun culture
Radio 4 on Saturday interviewed various young women from council estates in south London about the effect of guns on their lives. They said that firearms are commonplace: it costs £3000 to buy one and £50 to rent one and many single mothers keep them in their flats on behalf of men as they are paid a weekly fee for this service and are glad of the extra income. One woman had been imprisoned for 4 years for possessing a gun. She said her then boyfriend had started dealing in cannabis, moved on to harder drugs and was then making so much money that he needed a gun to protect himself. She had been very happy to look after it for him and had been seduced by the glamourous lifestyle although her spell in prison changed her mind about that and the boyfriend.
posted by Whispering Walls at 9:52 am
13 Comments:
See that London? Very expensive place. You can BUY them for £50 in Glasgow.
The Glaswegians must be doing a roaring trade in arms dealing with London then
Winchester; I think you had a mis-print, surely you mean £ 300 ??
You could surely be an SLR for £ 3000
Glasgow is a special place, that regards having to deal with anywhere outside the city limits as anathema ( see under Edinburgh,London, Manchester etc etc) So we use them ourselves. Actually, we don't. We hoard them. Many years ago there was a great series on BBC Scotland called (I think) Bookie. Maurice Roeves was the lead, his daughter was boss of a thinly veiled Ladbrokes and he was asimply three shop bookie. He had a wonderful line -" Listen, son, this is Glasgow. You LOVE Celtic or Rangers, and maybe yer girl friend occasionally, but ye'd shoot yer son if he stepped out of line." It's the macho thing. Noone can be allowed to cross you. Insult you, ok, but never ever double cross or clype.
Hey cuz yeah, whats goin down is dat, 1 weed seed is £10 yeah. When u grow da plant you can sell it all for £300. Thats just one plant yeah. dat means dat you got bare cash, u buy more seeds, more dosh. Basically yeah, u carry bare weed to sell, u need protection. Or boys from the hood might steal your gash yeah. Init bruv. Also bludrens when dey enough dollar, u can get some pimped up ride and do drive buys on da other dealers in da hood.
PS ur some neek yeah cos u can get a popper in sauf londan for 50 dollar.
SICK BRUV
PEACE OUT
I'm sure one of the girls said £3000 but maybe she was wrong.
Guns are glamorous - no way around it. Just as years ago people were whistling in the wind when they were trying to suggest that smoking isn't cool or glamorous, when a century of film shows otherwise. And pictures of rap stars hugging their Glocks has given them a 'cool' image as well.
Maybe if we showed a picture of a gun and a cigarette, with the slogan :-
"Both glamorous, both DEADLY" then people might get the message more easily than a load of sanctimonious bleating that 'Guns are bad'.
Guest Blog Brainstorm.
I'm sure you don't need any help from me, but in case you get "writer's block" when you are guest blogging...
1/ How to spend 10 billion quid.
The Olympics OR give it to that nice Griff Rhys Jones, Ptolemy Dean and the delightful Marianne Suhr, to save ALL the buildings on Restoration...[Past vs Future]
2/ Faith Vs Works - a modern take
3/ Town vs Country - are misunderstandings between both these communities going to ruin both ? Or is the need for second homes, or commuting, going to ruin the environment ?
4/ Films vs Books vs Theatre.
In Oscar week are films really works of art just as important as books or theatre ? Or a threat to the existence of diverse, eclectic and good quality literature ?
5/ Live music vs iPod generation.
Will even classical music be zapped onto the iPod and be so ubiquitous people will not feel the need to bother with concerts ? Or is live music simply impossible to reproduce accurately, even on hi-fi at home ?
6/ The West Lothian Question !
7/ Should we give the Queen a rest for a 'gap year' while we let the lovely Helen Mirren pop on the throne for a shot ? !
That's enough nonsense - It's gone midday and I haven't had my bath yet...
Hmm..The Smith and Wesson website, and the current pound / dollar rate seems to indicate that £ 300 is nearer the mark.
http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=11601&storeId=10001&categoryId=24806&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=16301&top_category=16301
However I guess that getting them to deliver it is a little more difficult than ordering a book from Amazon, or a CD from CD-WOW!, so I guess the real cost is getting one smuggled in. But since there appear to be little in the way of 'border controls' these days, I suspect that it is not going to delay the criminal fraternity significantly.
I love your pre-ablution ideas
A couple more - after all when you are 'freewheeling' for ideas quantity counts for a lot more than quality - which is probably just as well...
8/ Trade vs Aid.
Could we stop bothering with aid if the terms of trade, rules of the WTO were changed, or we allowed southern hemisphere continents to keep a big share of their assets ?
9/ Private motor cars - necessary evil, or the road to perdition ?
10/ Privatised railways - an idea which has rescued the train and increased passenger numbers, or needless complexity, competition and fragmentation
11/ Slow Food vs Fast Food - Good against evil or black & white gross over-simplification ?
12/ Britishness. 'Birds of a feather flocking together', or the various strands of Empire coming home to roost ?
13/ Best to leave this blank in deference to American readers ? Or a needless submission to a global monoculture ?
14/ Europe: a state of nations, or a nation in a bit of a state ??
Ah, but are they better or worse than my post-ablution ideas ?? In which case maybe you can answer the question 'Bath' vs 'Shower' ??
Or even, Do you sleep, so that you can dream, OR dream, so that you may sleep.
If you are finding the answer tricky, check out this beautiful film by Michael Gondry.
http://wip.warnerbros.com/scienceofsleep/
It speaks of love in an adult way, of work in a tedious way, of creativity stifled, but ultimately released in cartoon visages which will bring out the childhood dreams from days of the 'clangers', 'bagpuss' and 'trumptonshire'. FAB.
I dream a lot when I'm awake
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