Posted on 03/27/2002 10:31:00 AM PST by Paul_E_Ester
LONDON (Reuters) - Thousands of worried Britons are sharing their beds with a gun and nearly half of them are prepared to kill with it, according to a survey.
"Guns feature alongside baseball bats and hammers among the arsenal kept by almost one in 10 worried householders," security firm Micromark said on Tuesday, citing a telephone survey of 1,000 people.
The company said eight percent of those sleeping next to a weapon had a gun, equating to about 100,000 homes.
But a Home Office spokeswoman said barring special licenses for certain handguns and shotguns, there were only 125,000 licensed firearms altogether in England and Wales.
Crime has become a hot topic in Britain, with street crime up 40 percent in January alone and controversy mounting over a government plan for the early release of non-violent prisoners.
Women were the keenest to resort to firearms, while 44 percent of people opting to sleep with a weapon chose a blunt instrument such as a baseball bat.
"Ten percent of the women who keep a weapon choose a gun, compared to six percent of men," a Micromark spokesman told Reuters, adding that the number of people sleeping with guns was rising.
"Sixty percent of respondents believe people have the right to take the law into their own hands...and nearly half would be prepared to kill in order to protect their family," the firm said.
"These are worrying signals of a public which perceives domestic crime as spiralling out of control," said Martin Burrekoven-Kalvea of the National Neighbourhood Watch Association.
British law does not support the view that an Englishman's home is his castle. Norfolk farmer Tony Martin is serving five years in jail for shooting dead a teenage burglar in his home.
He is just one of many who have taken up arms to protect their homes, according to the poll, which found that gun ownership was 10 times higher in the country than in the city.
Not even half? WTF is wrong with these people?
Why'd we bother saving them in WWII?
Sports shops sell baseball bats here... though they're more often used as clubs than for hitting baseballs, I reckon.
Must be a cricket mallet.
Cricket bat. ;-)
But Pillow Biting by Englishmen is fairly widespread.
Flame away.
You could be right.
Look, I've really, seriously considered owning a gun, since I live in a ground floor flat in London and have a wife to protect. The main problem is you need to get in touch with some often seriously crim types to get one.
As it is, I have a pistol crossbow, swords (OK, I do historical re-enactment, I admit) and a musket (though I'd probably have to tell the intruder to wait while I loded the latter) in the house
Almost as widespread as rug-munching by American Liberal dykes ;-)
True, we seem to have more lesbos than the UK.
Depends how the question was put, I guess. No clue in the article. Would 100% of Americans answer in the positive? If the question had been 'Would you kill to defend your family', which is what you naysayers seem to be implying, I suppose the answer would have been much higher.
Hey, that's OK, I understand that! I must say, though, I don't personally know anyone who wouldn't be prepared to drop someone if they were threatening their wife/kids. Seems like a natural human reaction to me. I suppose you could go for a disabling shot/strike if you had time: depends on the situation!
I was told by a liberal once that I was too closed-minded and that I should reconsider my ideological points of view and consider becoming more liberal. I was told that there open-mindedness was a breath of fresh air in the world. Ha! After seeing what the liberals have done to England it is proof positive that liberalism IS open-minded and a breath of fresh air; So open-minded that their brains have scattered to the four winds and have been replaced with fresh air. That's why I call them scatter-brains and air-heads!
Like they are going to admit to a stranger who calls up on the phone that they are keeping an illegal gun in their homes? Have the British gone COMPLETELY daft?
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