British Gun Crime up 242 Percent; Post Says 'Laws Seen As Curbing Attacks'

NewsBusters, Washingon Post ^ | 4/24/07 | Ken Shepherd

[AT7Saluki]

This morning, NewsBusters contributing editor Dan Gainor brought this Washington Post article to my attention:

"Britain's Gun Laws Seen as Curbing Attacks"

But the problem is that while anti-gun activists recited those talking points in Post foreign service correspondent Mary Jordan's April 24 story, the empirical evidence shows otherwise.

The number of crimes in which a handgun was used in England and Wales has risen from 299 in 1995 to 1,024 last year. Offenses committed with all types of firearms, including air guns, have also increased.

That's an increase of 725 gun crimes in 11 years, a 242 percent increase.

[Joan Kerrey]

British Gun Crime up 242 Percent;

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Impossible. Guns are banned in Great Britain. Everyone knows that.

[Shooter 2.5]

Thanks for the statistics.
We in the U.S. lost control of the crime situation when the baby boomers started becoming adults back in the early sixties.

I’m afraid your country is doing the same. My understanding is your country is starting revolving door justice just like we have had for the last forty years.

[Hardastarboard]

How those murders are carried out is totally irrelevant to the victims; or to me.

Oh, no. Being murdered with an evil looking black rifle with a large capacity magazine is much more painful and horrifying than being murdered by being gutted with a butcher knife, or beaten to death with a tire iron. Josh Sugarman, Chuck Schumer, Sarah Brady and Dianne Feinstein told me so.

[pleikumud]

Thanks for all the info. I didn’t know about UK.

[OldPossum]

And belng knifed to death must be awfully painful.

It's also so...so personal, you know?

[OldPossum]

These U.S. data are taken from VVV (post 41):

In 1999, 58% of all gun deaths were suicides...

I'm a bit curious since I have read that many UK suicides are from deliberately taking too many tablets of acetaminophen which gradually destroys the kidneys, leading to a slow, painful death in a hospital. Is this true? And if it is, wouldn't you grant that, say, a blast to the head from a .45 is a fast way of ending one's life, without incurring any costs to the health services industry?

If I'm wrong and this information is wrong, how do most Britons off themselves? Just curious.

[dynoman]

I noticed the Swiss are down the chart from the UK, I wonder what the Swiss per capita gun ownership is compared to the US?

One thing the Swiss position on the chart proves, gun crime is not about guns.

[JCEccles]

On the other hand, your burglary rates are way up, more than twice the US rate. Do you know what? It's because thugs know they can break into your homes with impunity. No one is armed.

Burglary is a MUCH riskier proposition in the US, especially where I live. About three households in every four have loaded shotguns or handguns at the ready.

[dynoman]

Hey that helps explain things, we shoot the burglars here, that halves our burglary rate but increases the gun deaths!

[dynoman]

[Dave Elias]

“Using your figures, the US has 5 times the population and only 3 times the murder rate per thousand.

As one who understands both maths and statistics”

That post has got to be worth some kind of award

[Elsie]

But “The gun-murder rate in America is more than 30 times that of England and Wales”

In what segment of society?

Wink... wink...

[Elsie]

Actually my FRiend, crime has fallen over here, as my stats showed, deaths from gun crime have fallen massively since the 90s. That’s beyond dispute, it’s a fact.

What do you expect; with Big Brother looking at you from every corner!!!

[Elsie]

1998/99 on the lower chart has TWO values!!

One blue; one black!

Which is right?

[FreedomPoster]

>>Actually my FRiend, crime has fallen over here, as my stats showed,

Actually, your stats show nothing of the sort. They show a small drop in *one* type of crime.

What trend do your violent crime rates show, and what is the comparison vs. the US?

[FreedomPoster]

Yeah, those Scots are real “outsiders”.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> But....but....but....handguns were outlawed there.....oh never mind......

Handguns are reasonably uncommon here in NZ. But we see lots LOTS of sawn-off shotties and sawn-off rifles. Very common. Some of ‘em have nearly no barrel at all. Imagine a semiauto rifle, with no stock, no barrel, just a wee bit longer than your average pistol? — an ugly weapon, shooting really large rounds wildly inaccurately, and easily concealed. Stolen of course.

It doesn’t bear thinking about! Yet it happens all the time.

We also see lots of improvised weapons: machetes, carpenter saws, hammers, screwdrivers, cricket bats.

And of course knives. Lots of ‘em, most of them originally designed for kitchen use. Subsequently modified to suit the owner’s ummm... unique... requirements.

I’ve never been to the UK but maybe things are like that over there. Dunno.

[FreedomPoster]

Is “castle law” on your side in NZ, at home with your shotgun, as it generally is here in the US?

I think this is the aspect of current UK firearms law and policy that is most amazing to Americans. The idea that you can’t actively defend yourself in your home is just abhorrent. That, along with the concomitant increasing violent crime stats, especially those for home invasion robberies.

[UKrepublican]

True. It’s a sorry situation, but to the credit of the current government, crime has fallen by 30%, whereas under the previous government it near doubled.

[UKrepublican]

I’m not too sure about the specific methods. I’m sure I could find out, but it would make no difference as I can safely rule out gun usage which is the point you are making.

How somebody kills themself doesn’t matter to me, I want to prevent it either way. Clearly the gun isn’t important. However when it comes to killing others, while you could make that same arguement, I would agree, only to say, we have a smaller muder rate, much smaller and with guns aswell.