Posted on 09/30/2005 10:14:01 AM PDT by RDTF
The Turkish government, police and media have come together to try and prevent the practice of celebratory gunfire which has recently injured, maimed and killed many citizens. The interior minister Abdulkadir Aksu sent a circular last week to all the governors’ offices, asking them to initiate campaigns against the firing of guns during celebrations. Shooting in the air, usually in wedding ceremonies and after football matches is a celebratory gesture in rural areas of Turkey, as well as in Middle East and in Balkan countries.
Public awareness of the issue increased after deaths of nearly a dozen people, mainly youngsters, in separate incidents. The most recent victims whose cases were covered extensively in the local media were a university student who was scheduled to go to France for further studies and a 6-year-old girl who was accidentally killed by a bullet from her grandfather’s gun at a wedding. -snip- At a conference after the demonstration, UMUT declared the following proposals to deal with the problem:
1) Human rights and a culture of peace should be implemented in the school curriculum. 2) The laws on gun licencing and registration should be tighter. 3) As a long term target, no one other than the security forces should be allowed to own guns. 4) The validity of a gun licence should be decreased from 5 years to 2 years. 5) Psychological tests for gun licence applicants should be mandatory.
It seems rather unlikely that this is one of the "shooting in the air" cases. Also the proposed remedies do not say anything about preventing people from shooting in the air.
I noticed that, too. You'd think something like giant fines and/or substantial jail sentences for reckless discharge would have more impact on the problem than this 1-5 blather. It suggests that they're interested in disarming the public, not preventing death or injury, doesn't it?
Who shoots turkeys for joy? I do it for the meat! ;^)
Why can't they just get drunk and set off fireworks like we do here?
I remember an incident when I was a kid. A city bus hit a person walking across the street. There was a riot and some citizens wanted to kill the bus driver.
When the police arrived on the scene one officer shot in the air and a bullet came down and hit a citzen/rioter and caused a cracked skull.
can't wait, turkey season opens monday here :)
Yeah I went Turkey hunting a few times when I lived in MT. It's a whole different experience.
Really sick.
Well, people can then say in the "long-term", when caught with a gun, they don't own it. They're just in possession of it. Hahahahahaha! Works for me. : - )
These Turks are something else. Even when they attempt to change their society in a way that would serve to make them seem more civilized, their methods actually make them seem less civilized. If I was a EUrotard, I would tremble in fear at the thought of these clowns joining the EU.
Fines or jail sentences don't work if you can't enforce them. Enforcing this kind of a penalty would require that police are sent to every wedding or celebration in southeast Turkey to check on people. The long term measures aim to bring people up so that they do not feel a need to shoot in the air when they are happy. Cheering or dancing should suffice.
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