We are, as a society in general; and mind that we are a very urbanised society, while this forum is kind of biased to country; so unused to the sight of firearms of any kind, except in films, that it just does not sit comfortably.
Let me give you an example.
Glasgow, Central Station, that's one of the two main railway stations in the biggest city in Scotland. Bustling, noisy, full of people.
Some numpties tried to blow up Glasgow Airport, and for the first time in my life I saw armed policemen in Glasgow. In our city, on our streets, in our country, at the Central Station......and the town was silent around them.
Mind the first lockdown, how quiet it was ? that's what the town was like near the policemen and the Central Station.
Glasgow, and Glaswegians, are never silent.
But this ? it was totally alien, it felt so very wrong.
Heaven knows how those policemen felt, they looked very capable, but they looked 'unrelaxed' iimmc ?, but the rest of the folks around were not ready to see armed police.
Besides, it was unarmed civilians that took on the terrorists who tried to blow up the airport, not armed police or soldiers.
Now that's just one example. Imagine an armed police presense at a school ? or the school Jannie armed and ready, like we're told they're advocating in the Americas.....can you imagine your school Jannie, the man who fixes everything from the windows to the tables, sorts out crying kids and playground hassles, walking about with a gun strapped to him ?
I'm pretty sure my school Jannie would have hit an attacker with his coal shovel (coal fired radiators back then) or the window hook, or the big bass broom, but a gun ?
They were for cowboys.
Dinner, pest control, sport, all fine, but cowboys, terrorists, thugs, thieves and drug dealers are the perception for the rest.
Thomas Hamilton's actions might have fired up the Snowdrop campaign, but the reality is that it could not have proceeded without widespread agreement and approval from the general public.
So, working within those parameters, whether we agree with them or not, and there being no reason why firearms ought not be discussed, we just keep things comfortable for everyone.
No one gets slated in Fair Game for owning or using guns, or posting photos, and no one gets in trouble publically for opening anywhere else in the forum (last time we heard about it was from a student in a Uni computer lab. It didn't go down well)
Putin ? ah well, that's a whole other conversation