Radio presenter and London Express columnist Nick Ferrari recently riffed on the school shooting in Tennessee in which seven people died. Rather unseasonably, he draws attention to an American Christmas card featuring a family equipped with rifles, standing in front of a Christmas tree.

He comments that “while we in the UK usually go for Father Christmas outfits or family pictures by the fireplace for personalised cards, Tennessee congressman Andy Ogles chose a deadly assault rifle equipped with a sight and sound muffler, while his wife, Monica, opted for exactly the type of gun used in last week’s shootings in Nashville which left six people dead, including three children. Even the two older children are carrying rifles.”

He adds that “this is even more embarrassing for this preening oaf, as he represents the area where the shootings took place.”

Ferrari writes that “as we struggle to work out just how such a supposedly advanced nation can allow itself to be put through the unspeakable horror of having to endure the regular incidences of pupils being gunned down in their school classrooms, it’s perhaps informative to pause and look at this Christmas card.”

He goes on in this vein: “Tennessee seems to be real ‘redneck’ territory, and a truly frightening place. The state is pushing for the age at which anyone can carry a gun to be cut to 18 and for weapons to be permitted on college campuses.”

And then he adds: “Meanwhile, abortion has been ruled illegal, with no exception permitted for rape or incest. It is also the first state to outlaw drag shows in public places or with a certain distance from schools, parks or places of worship”.

He concludes smugly: “Makes you glad to be in the UK, doesn’t it?”

Mr Ferrari is right to condemn the killing of those three innocent children. But how could he possibly, in the same breath, condemn restrictions on abortion? Abortion means killing children not yet born – and not with a magic wand, but with surgical instruments and lethal pills, their remains flushed away into the sewer.

Convicted murderers would never be allowed to be treated to such extreme violence and disrespect. The victims of abortion have done nothing to deserve such treatment, apart from being inconvenient to someone else – and that someone else is very often not the mother. Abortions for rape and incest, although they constitute a tiny proportion of all abortions, serve to cover up the abuse and are often experienced by the woman as a further assault.

As to protecting children, most people would agree that they should be protected from the overtly sexual performances of drag queens now being inflicted on them in the name of openness and respecting diversity.

In fact, the school shooting to which he alludes was carried out by a trans man (ie, a biological woman). This seems to have been an extreme outbreak of the “trans terror” afflicting Western societies, including the US, largely ignored by the mainstream media, in which “trans activists” have indulged in violent rhetoric, even calling for a “day of vengeance” against their so-called attackers. This violence has even been condemned by transwoman Caitlyn Jenner as the “radical rainbow mafia”.

All this happens in places where to allow a child to see a cigarette packet is regarded as a dangerous outrage of childhood innocence. There is no justification for us British looking down on Tennesseans when we ourselves have seen the killing of 10 million unborn fellow-citizens since 1967.

So yes, the UK is a very civilised country – apart from all the killing.