Strange fiction begets stranger reality?

Building on the news that London has displaced New York in knife and gun murders (despite the gun control thing):

Hospital staff compare the situation in The Great Wen to that of an Afghan war zone.

The shock comments made Thursday morning come after two more men were killed overnight, a couple of days after another night of violence saw a boy, 16, stabbed to death and a 17-year-old girl shot in a “drive by”.

Wednesday night’s killings, both in Hackney, East London, brought the death toll from suspected murder in the capital to 50 so far this year, pulling away from New York City, which London overtook at the weekend.

Dr. Mark Griffiths, the lead surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust in East London, said that knife and gun wounds had moved from a “niche” part of his job to a daily chunk of his workload, and a growing number of victims were “children”.

“Some of my military colleagues have described their practice here as similar to being at [Camp] Bastion,” Dr Griffiths told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.

“We used to look after people in their twenties. Now people are often in their mid to late teens and children in school uniforms are being admitted under our care with knife and gun wounds.”

So, how’s that near total gun control working out, England? Gun wounds require guns just as civilization requires the civilized. Can’t have the one without the other.

The outlander Mayor finally responded to the rising, predictable violence:

“The Mayor is shocked and angered by the violent deaths on the streets of London this year.

“He is heartbroken that so many of those taken have been young lives – and his thoughts are with their friends and family at this difficult time.

…

“The safety of Londoners is his number one priority.

Anger and heartbreak are understandable. How could this all come as a shock to any cognizant individual?

Saaaaaaaafety… Maybe freedom should be the number one priority? Then, second, homogeneity? Somewhere along the way safety might take care of itself.

Nah. Ignore the guns. And certain factors demographic. Blame the knives. “Surrender your knife save a life!“ #knifecontrol.

It’s no longer possible to even make this crap up… Downtrend.

Something in all this reminded me of a very recent Christopher DeGroot piece at Taki’s Mag: The Education of America. Kind of fits (without need for a separate column…). One would think men would learn. They had better.