[MrLWJ]

Dear Mr Blair - Just to let you know that a couple of days ago I was given the opportunity by a bunch of FREE MEN to spit right in the eye of you and your panty-waist crew of namby-pamby gun thieves, woofters and snake-oil salesmen. I stood in the rain under the leaden skies of a FREE COUNTRY and shot the almighty bejasus out of a bunch of paper with honest to gosh HANDGUNs, and nossir, not only did I NOT go to jail immediately afterwards, and the heavens NOT open in horror, but I was positively ordered to do do it all over again as soon as ever my magazine was empty. This happened, I have to relate, a fair number of times before I was happy that I had forgotten nothing about shooting just about any kind of a handgun, in spite of your strenuous efforts to the contrary.
The boys with whom I passed this most pleasant, if damp, afternoon, were among the world's finest gentlemen, and I am both proud and humble to call them friends. They took me [figuratively] to their hearts on sight - we are, after all, the same species, in spite of all your efforts to instil a loathing in the bosom of your countrymen for those who take up arms for fun as I once did.
Great quantities of ammunition were expended, great yarns were swapped, but the overwhelming point of my message to them was a dire warning - a point they readily took - that what has happened to me and all my fellows in UK just might happen here in the USA where I am presently writing this note on Larry's computer [hence the temporary absence of the Ig, for which I apologise].
You see, Mr Blair, they could not understand how a man who can send his fellow countrymen to war, using firearms of all kinds, can so easily forbid his fellow citizens from owning them legally, after all, your own Home Office admitted that less than 1/10th of 1 per cent of crimes were ever caused by legally owned weapons, and for some classes of weapons, including handguns, the figure was so passingly small as to be unmeasurable.

Still and all, Mr Blair, there ya go, as we say over here. Because, as the man said - I have supped at a sweeter spring, and breathed a freer air, than ever I did before. I have spent my time with better men than you, who admit that they not only cannot understand you and your policies, but have no wish to even try.

One day soon I will do it all again, the very day after I leave you behind forever. And good riddance to you and yours.

And the greatest thanks to Dwight, Steve and Bob. Gunsmoke was never so sweet as yesterday.

tac, presently in Portland OR