Guns

I very rarely post about Madness even though they're my favourite band. Over the last few days however I've been reminded of a song they wrote back in 1984 in support of CND, a cause they were lending their support to at the time.

The song was a 'throwaway B-side' to the sublime single 'One Better Day'. Madness were trying to make a difficult transition at the time - one which it could be argued they have never successfully accomplished. They were attempting to move away from the Nutty Boys image which had brought them such success in the first four years of the decade, and start to tackle subjects that were beginning to trouble them as individuals as their world view widened beyond Camden Town. Its simplistic both musically and lyrically - songwriter Suggs dealing in a naturally jokey way with the parallels between gun ownership and the nuclear weapons debate that was raging at the time. Madness have never wanted to get 'too heavy' with their audience and any messages have always been treated in a light-hearted way... but the message is still there behind the smile.

'Guns' compares something that has always seemed faintly ridiculous to us Brits - the idea that Americans are safer for being able to carry guns - with the accepted theory on nuclear deterrence (at the time) that continuing to invest in nuclear weapons was the best way for the West to ensure that it remained safe from the threat of a nuclear war. Ironically - in the quarter of a century plus since the song was released, the latter theory has been gradually dismantled along with the world's stockpiles of nuclear weapons. And yet the bit which we always saw as ludicrous - the arguments in favour of the freedom of Americans to carry guns - seem to retain the same strength that they had back in 1984.

Last Friday's shocking events in Newtown Connecticut have quite rightly brought the question of gun control to the front and centre of the American political agenda. We in the UK can only look on slightly bemused as Americans grapple with how to deal with the contradictions of preventing such events as these and yet protect their rights under the Second Amendment. On Sunday, a former Texan Judge commented on the radio that the problem was not too many guns, but too few! He said "I wish to God that [the Sandy Hook principal] had had an M-4 in her office, so when she heard gunfire she pulls it out... takes him out, takes his head off before he kills those precious kids." This sort of thinking just seems entirely irrational to me.The National Rifle Association is reckoned to be one of the strongest lobby groups in the US. It has 4.3 million members. Since Friday it has sensibly set it's Facebook page to private and kept a low profile on Twitter. But silence cannot be its position in the long run and at some stage someone from this group needs to show leadership and face up to the unarguable link between guns being easily accessible and the risks it increases of massacres such as Newtown and Columbine, Virginia Tech and Aurora.

Maybe, this time something constructive (or hopefully deconstructive) can be done to start to reduce the likelihood of future recurrences of this sort of event. In the meantime - here's Guns...

I read a brand new paper 
The man who had a thousand guns 
Lived in the Southern States 
Well away from everyone 
Felt it wasn't safe 
Even in the Southern States

I read a brand new paper 
Walking down my own street 
The man with a thousand guns 
Has taken to his feet 
He felt it wasn't safe 
Even in the Southern States

He thought that he might die 
Who was he frightened by? 
Anyone with a gun. 
Well, every stranger's danger 
Everybody has one 
But alone and hungry 
He couldn't eat his..... 
Guns

I watched my television 
Sitting on the floor 
The window man was watching 
Me and a million more 
He read me the news 
Someone's getting their dues

He thought that we might die 
He wasn't frightened why? 
Everyone has a bomb 
It's a passing danger 
Or so he said 
Everybody has one 
Courtesy of Judge Dredd