We're not getting at Americans here... just gun freaks.
Despite what you might think, only a minority of Americans are gun freaks.
We have our own gun freaks in the UK - the chap who perpetrated the Dunblane massacre springs to mind.
We have had one such incident, while America has had dozens, because our gun freaks can't get the tools.
I like Americans. I don't like gun freaks, of whatever nationality.
A gun makes a small man feel like a big man. Unfortunately, his brain stays small.
So intoxicating is this feeling that gun freaks will go to any lengths to get their fix.
When reason doesn't come into it, they resort to pomposity and bombast, scorn and vitriol.
And as a final resort, they will say that their inalienable rights to caress their firearms outweigh the rights of their victims to live.
What has this got to do with helicopters?