Posted on 08/23/2007 5:01:23 AM PDT by Renfield
British laws have some of the most restrictive gun-control regulations in the West. Even so, for years the British have seen gun crime skyrocketing as more and younger criminals realize the advantage they have with a firearm in hand:
'...The number of young people prosecuted for firearms offences has soared by 20 per cent in the past five years, it was revealed earlier this month. In 2001, 1,193 youngsters under age 21 went to magistrates courts on gun related charges. By 2005, that had risen to 1,444. The statistics come after a recent wave of gun crime in Britain’s inner cities, with many victims not even out of their teens.
Shadow home affairs minister James Brokenshire said: “The rise in gun crime demonstrated by these figures is alarming.”
In April Bernard Hogan-Howe, the chief constable of Merseyside Police, insisted new laws to make reporting information on shootings and possession of guns a 'duty’’ were essential because people were too scared to come forward....'
This is not a new story. Over three years ago, I noted the sharp increase in gun-related murders in both England and Wales, as well as other Western gun-control nations. In fact, the murder rate dropped in the United States during the same period, even though gun control had lost steam in American politics.
Britain banned handguns of all kinds ten years ago. Within just a couple of years, the homicide rate had risen over 40%. Violent crime rates more than doubled in three years. The graphic from the 2003 Canadian study shows a hockey-stick increase in violent crime that rivals the chart used by climate-change advocates.
Four years later, Britain still can't figure out why disarming the victims has created a spike in gun-related violence. When criminals have a near-certainty that they outgun potential victims, it removes the most immediate disincentive for an attack. Instead of rethinking the entire idea of criminalizing law-abiding citizens who only want to defend themselves, now British authorities want to criminalize law-abiding citizens who won't volunteer testimony about criminals.
And they don't stop there. The Telegraph reports that one candidate to be the next Metropolitan police commissioner wants to press charges against victims of gun violence who are too terrified of reprisals to testify. That's correct; they want to arrest the victims they've disarmed. He's already ordering police to "stop and search suspects regularly", which at least sounds as if British police have started to conduct searches without any probable cause to find guns.
Why not just allow law-abiding citizens the right to arm themselves? It can't get much worse than it already has become over the last ten years. If nothing else, Britain shows that a national policy of gun control leaves an entire country of victims for criminals to exploit.
What happened to the spirit of; “whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”? Looks like GB has a problem with illegal gun traffic. Makes one wonder how much is flowing into the country and why. It appears that it may be the time to start worrying about defending themselves again.
They are just digging themselves in deeper and deeper over there. I was reading The Sun “discussions” page and the question was “Should we arm our police?” Most of the response was “No, we don’t want to be like the US.” One idiot said, “I will kill myself if we become like the US.” Another gem, “I don’t trust our police without weapons, what would they do if they were armed?” Brilliant.
Answering another question, a Canadian chimed in with, “The US is so violent, that Canadians are afraid to go there.” (We have no Canadians visiting here? Obviously, she has never been to Tampa in the winter.) She added, “We demand that they leave their guns home when we let them into our country. I am grateful every day that I am not an American.” So are we sweets.
No, wait, that's what the Canadians say. Oops, never mind.
(/sarc)
bump
It died with Churchill. The brits are on the average a bunch of jackboot licking serfs.
Yes but some draw the wrong conclusions. Scum like Feinstein and Schumer look at it and see that nothing bad happened to the politicians (bad being defined as losing power) because of the ban, so they're encouraged to go forward. And frankly I don't see anyone doing a Heydrich on tyrants like Waxman, schemer, etc. no matter what gun control they pass. The will and spirit of '76 has been lost and replace by the Katrina spirit of "when's someone gonna do somehting for us."
This would be laughable if it weren't so serious. The criminal element is deterred only by fear of arrest or death, and they have nothing to fear.
YOU’D HAVE THOUGHT THE BRITS WOULD HAVE LEARNED A FEW THINGS IN THE 40S. Sigh...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73SsNFgBO4
Honest./s
Gun crime is out of control? That is terrible. They need to pass laws outlawing guns!... oh, wait a minute, never mind....
I love our British brethren. They are a wonderful people. Love their armed forces as well. I trained with SAS and 1st Para. But mark my words. Their government and all their political parties are globalist to the core. This internal problem of theirs, although easily solved by repealing the gun laws will be used as an excuse to shove the UN's gun control schemes on our country. Watch.
That used to be the case, but I don't think it's the norm currently. For one thing the BIG BROTHER cameras are everywhere so usually they know in advance there is gunsmoke in the air. I have to hand it to the Brits, when they need to bring force they bring MASSIVE amounts. H&K MP5s usually substitute for handguns in those situations. Also, I don't think their military is limited from running ops on their own soil as we are restricted by the doctrine of posse commitatus. Fact is that terrorism is so much a part of the landscape, they bring in the army at will.
who was that british gentleman on FR that used to wax eloquent regards the lower crime stats in beautiful Britain. Seems he was a might premature in his, ah, ejaculations.
What happened to the spirit of, “whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”?
It died when those very people kicked out that very man.
“The US is so violent, that Canadians are afraid to go there.”
LOL, but not so afraid to go to our vastly superior doctors.
Well, if your only source for information about the USA was an MSM broadcast, you, too would probably think the whole country looks like Detroit. Something of the reverse is happening to us with all of these stories about crime in Britain - the happenings in lower-income areas of cities are being extrapolated by conservative bloggers and media outlets into an inaccurate picture of violence in the entire country.
If things were as bad in Britain as some SUN posters claim I think martial law would have been established long before this. The topic did give the opportunity to bash their favorite subjects, tough, “America and Americans” so it did serve its purpose. :O)
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