This podcast is sponsored by Seller Plan from Berry Brothers and Rudd, collecting fine wines for future drinking.

Welcome to The Spectator podcast. I'm Freddie Gray. On this week's episode, we'll be discussing the horrific events in Las Vegas on Sunday night and asking if there's any appropriate response at all that the media should

have. We'll also be looking at the contentious Catalan referendum and wondering what makes the

perfect pub quiz. First up, atrocity in America. Sunday night's horrific slaughter in Las Vegas

has led to the inevitable agonized debate about gun control. But should we, the media, be hastily

asking such questions?

Or is it better in the face of such horror, just to stay quiet? I'm joined by Lionel Schreiber,

our new columnist and author famously of a novel We Need to Talk About Kevin, which was about a

school massacre, and another of our columnist, Rod Little. Lionel, in your piece this week,

you suggest that perhaps Brits might learn to

pipe down a little bit when talking to Americans about gun rights. Is this something that

British people just do whenever there's a shooting, a massacre in America? Oh, it's become a

ritual, and it's tiresome. It's not that there's not truth to it. Yes, the US has wax gun laws,

some states more than others, and one of the laxist is indeed Nevada,

though we don't know where all those guns were sourced from this time. It's just, it doesn't do any good.

Americans are not interested in what Brits think of their gun laws. They're not going to change their gun laws because they're not

popular in London. And this is just an exercise in British superiority. You know, here, you know,

the Brits are civilized. They have restrictions on these dangerous implements and the Americans are

barbarians. Well, don't you think that's actually the case that we want you to be as pro-gun as possible,

so we can feel very superior morally?

Oh, yes, it would be terribly disappointing if we actually change the laws.

Particularly if President Trump did.

...