The next time a politician suggests British-style regulations in the US, they should know about this.
Also, should CNN grant "equal time" by publicizing this fact?
The article states: “...Alcohol is blamed as a factor in half of the incidents...”
England and Wales have the world’s highest level of drinking and drunkenness, as I recall, which is difficult to combat in spite of several educations programs devoted to teaching people sane alcohol policies and practices. They are attempting to raise taxes on booze, close grog shops earlier, etc
If it was just about individual rights, no one would care very much, but public health costs caused by alcohol addiction, hospital admissions, etc. soak up a huge part of the budget. Those monies would be better spent taking care of injuries and diseases that are not self-inflicted.
Remind Brit commentators that Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom. How did gun control measures work there? Also somebody remind Piers Morgan that the US Congress does not have any members who belong to a political party that specifically reference the AR-15 in one of there most famous slogans. The UK has five members of Parliament who do. I guess they forget this famous speech,
“Who here really believes we can win the war through the ballot box? But will anyone here object if, with a ballot paper in this hand and an Armalite(AR-15) in the other, we take power in Ireland?”
The UK political party is Sinn Fein, and they have 5 MP’s in Westminster and many, many more in the local Northern Ireland Assembly. Guys like Morgan act like this part of their recent history never happened.
God Bless the Telegraph! Always an outstanding source!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9551123/Two-female-police-officers-shot-dead-in-Greater-Manchester.html
Two unarmed police officers shot dead. The perp used a gun and a grenade. Wanted for a prior murder.
Before everyone starts sneering at the violent Brits and cancelling their holidays to London or Scotland, let me point out one big fact about these figures.
The UK has TWENTY EIGHT violent offences on their various statute books. To take a boat out in dangerous weather against the crew’s wishes is classed as assault against the person in the UK. I kid you not.
The UK therefore has far more violent offences on their books than the United States, and that completely changes any comparison, in fact it arguably renders it useless, certainly wholesale comparisons.
Of course the UK is going to look more violent if it has 2, 3, 4, 6 times the amount of violent offences on the statute books....
Yes, the UK is more violent than it once was, but there are another two facts again missing:
1—Most UK violent crimes are NOT against the person, but property. 2—The UK historically has had a very low rate of crime, minor or serious. Any rise has to be seen in that context.
Famously, LESS people died as a result of the 25 yrs of irish terrorism (IRA, UVF etc) in both NI and the British mainland than were murdered in single US cities like Detroit, NY or Chicago!.
Britain is still a safe country to live in. Common sense will tell you this, as it will that the UK is not ‘far more violent’ than the USA, Canada, France etc. Safer than 1970 or 1990?. No. But neither is it the violent hellhole these distorted figures show.
Let me end with these figures:
The US has a gun crime usage rate FORTY TIMES that of the UK (400,000 vs 10,000 in 2010).
The US has a gun murder rate SIXTEEN times that of the UK (15,000 vs 900).
75% of all serial killers live in the US (not my words, those of Robert Ressler)
The US murder rate is almost THREE times that of the UK (4.2 vs 1.2).
EVEN IF EXTRAPOLATED BY FIVE TO EQUAL BOTH POPULATIONS (300M VS 300M), the US gun crime rate would STILL be EIGHT times higher, and the gun murder rate would still be over THREE TIMES higher than the UK. And the US would still have the vast majority of the serial killers, as British serial killers are a tiny minority.
The rate of people killed by guns in the US is 19.5 times higher than similar high-income countries in the world.
BTT
Just a caveat. It says “recorded” crime.