It's been quite an astonishing season for nutcases with shotguns in Britain. Sadly there's been all too many victims. Earlier this summer there was that taxi driver in Cumbria who went on a rampage, then Raoul Moat went on the run after threatening and attacking the police in Northumbria. In both cases the perpetrator shot himself. The taxi driver did so alone, Raoul Moat after a six-hour police attempt to persuade him to surrender.

It always seems to end that way with random killers. I notice that in similar events in America, the gunman invariably turns the weapon on himself. This seems to be a part of human behaviour. Having lashed out at society the gunman cannot bear to face the consequences of what they've done and prefer suicide as an escape from shame.

For a brief moment they're powerful. People run and hide from them in fear. Their name appears on television news with the public warned not to approach. The law-enforcement authorities concentrate all their attention on them so they feel important. Eventually, whether because reality becomes obvious, or ammunition runs low, or simply because the bloodlust fades, the perpetrator begins to understand that this temporary power is about to vanish. They cannot dictate events any more. They're contained, surrounded, powerless to act. And so they they turn the weapon on themselves.

I know the correct thing is to try and apprehend the perpetrator peacefully, but if a man uses violence in this way, is he really going to consider a peaceful surrender as his best option? All too often the analysis afterward points at various indications we all should have noticed. The oddities and anomalies in their speech and actions before the event always indicate what they were planning to do in hindsight, but the problem is that most iof us wouldn't consider action of this sort so it's difficult to see the problem brewing. Right now, there are people questioning themselves and feeling shame that they didn't make that difference between life or death before Raoul Moat went on his rampage. The same thing with the taxi-driver in Cumbria. Or any other random killer.

Could they really have stopped people like Raoul Moat? The rules of our society are clear. If they chose to act in this way, surely they must also have known they weren't going to get away with it forever. If mentally ill and unable to to listen to reason, what was the point of persuasion? There is a harder attitude here that is as old as humanity - An eye for eye. It's why some nations still have a death sentence in their legal system. Society needs to feel that justice has been done. Or that they can sleep safe in their homes.

Perhaps it's easy for me to say this because the threat was somewhere else, but as for Raoul Moat ending his life on a riverbank at night by pulling a trigger - Good. That saved a few lives didn't it?

Another Hot One

Another weather warning. This time the weatherman is telling us it's going to be well hot. It's a strange thing really but we spend so much money and endure so much aggravation going abroad to experience hot weather, whereas at home we moan and groan and wish it would all go away. There's only so many times you can invite people to a barbeque in the garden.

It does mean though that I'll be lying there at night unable to sleep. It's bad enough at the library this morning, with the air conditioning failing to make the air breathable with sixty computers turning up the heat. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but for once, no-one is making any noise.