Posted on 07/08/2002 4:21:08 PM PDT by 2nd_Amendment_Defender
GUN crime has soared by up to 50 per cent in violent inner-cities, a report reveals this week. Police gun squads are close to breaking point as armed gangs roam the streets in record numbers.
The alarming Home Office figures will blow apart Tony Blair’s pledge to beat street crime.
Worst blackspot is the West Midlands, which has seen a 50 per cent rise in offences in 12 months.
In London, gun crime leapt by 25 per cent and West Yorkshire saw an 11 per cent increase.
MPs fear Britain is now close to arming all police. Cops toting pistols and machine guns are already a common sight in parts of Manchester.
The Tories called for ministers to get a grip before the crisis worsens. They claim young hoodlums even use weapons as fashion accessories.
Shadow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin said: “The Government has issued a crime-fighting initiative a week but it has had no effect.”
The figures prove Manchester chief constable Alan Green’s claim that gun crime is at “intolerable levels.”
And the Police Federation’s spokesman for Scotland Yard’s elite SO19 firearms squad said his colleagues were “close to bursting.”
Figures on Friday will show ALL offences up six per cent in a year.
The figure could be THREE TIMES higher under a new system which will count crimes not investigated.
The author of this article obviously hates firearms. I feel sorry for those people in the United Kingdom. Criminals know citizens have no handguns so they carry their handguns to get what they want out of unarmed people.
One David Wooding, per byline. There's a Brit with that name in the Google photo collection, but he seems to be a scientific-research boffin and a rather nice fellow, not the nasty sort who penned that article, so I don't expect it's the right *David Wooding.*
Still, we might get some results if we'd offer a small bounty, as is sometimes done when rats get too thick in the henhouse, or when weasels get after kittens.
-archy-/-
</sarcasm>
-Empty-Barrel Gun Policies-A legacy of nonsense from Clinton, Blair, and the Left--
-A Problem With Guns (Long... but SOOOO good)--
Shooting More Holes in Gun Control
HCI Aussie Style (read it and weep-or laugh)
The Great Australian Gun Law CON!
| Canadian Gun Control Has Little Impact on Crime (Home Gun Confiscation/Resisters) | ||||||
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Israel is Arming Its Civilians - Why Aren't We?
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| Through the Looking Glass and Back Again - From Anti-gunner to Firearms Instructor in Four Months | ||||||
Maybe they should make handguns illegal.
I don't. The UK and Europe generate more America bashing lies than the Middle East.
Fascism is just around the corner for the UK and France and they richly deserve it. This time, I hope the US doesn't lift a finger to save them from their stupidity.
By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent (Filed: 07/07/2002)
The true level of crime is as much as 40 per cent higher than official figures show. Home Office statistics, drawn up by traditional methods, will this week show that 5.5 million crimes were committed in the 12 months to March 31, an increase of six per cent on the previous year. They will be dwarfed, however, by the next set of results, due to be published in October. New, more accurate methods of counting crime will reveal a huge leap in offences and show the extent of crime in Britain.
Surveys of crime levels by several police forces, obtained by The Telegraph, show that up to 6,000 more crimes are being committed every day than the current official national figures suggest.
Previously the police have recorded only incidents that were actively pursued. From April 1, however, all police forces were ordered by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, to record every crime reported to them so that figures were more accurate. The early results have shocked Mr Blunkett, according to Home Office officials.
In the past, many minor crimes have been overlooked if there were a more serious incident to be dealt with: for instance, a theft following a murder would rarely be counted. Some crimes have also not been recorded because the victim withdraws a statement or complaint or because officers thought the offence too trivial to pursue.
The new figures obtained by The Telegraph show that in Devon and Cornwall there there were 23,894 offences committed in April and May this year - 40 per cent more than the old figures for the corresponding months in 2001.
In Humberside, total crime in April and May was up from 17,817 last year to 21,552 this year - a 21 per cent increase. Violent crime in Humberside was up 38.5 per cent, robberies more than doubled from 165 to 358, assaults rose from 1,595 to 2,497 (up 56 per cent) and vehicle crimes soared from 3,040 to 3,984 (up 31 per cent).
In Northumbria, which covers Newcastle upon Tyne, crime was up 18.5 per cent in April, compared with April last year, with violent assaults trebling.
In the Metropolitan Police area there was a monthly average of 88,000 crimes but in May this year it was 97,531, up more than 11 per cent, despite a high-profile attempt to curb street crime. The Prime Minister had promised to cut the growth in street crime by September.
When you get rid of a law-abiding gun culture, you get a lawless gun culture.
How can this be? Haven't they banned just about all guns, especially for city dwellers? Must be a mistake. Someone call Schumer, Fienstein, Clinton, and Boxer, et. al. and ask for clarification.</sarcasm.
Nah, don't bother, what you got wouldn't make any sense anyway.
Or the sheepdogs and shepherds.
Still nice and peaceful in the part where I live.
Domestically, Blair is a limey version of klinton, which means the above sentence must be parsed. "Cut the growth" means that crime will still be increasing, but just not as fast as before. If crime increased 40% this year, but "only" 30% next year, it will be hailed as a great victory.
The writer of this article is upset that even more British police are being armed. The general sense of the article is that the problem is not that more innocents are suffering, but rather that the beloved unarmed police are being armed in greater numbers.
The article exresses no concern for the victims, and presents no suggestions as how to reduce violent crime. That's because gun control must be preserved and expanded at all costs, including the cost of innocent lives.
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