Skelron wrote:Okay I'll point out only one thing here, Before the banning of hand Guns only a VERY TINY Minority of the British Public owned hand guns. What does this mean it is not the same cultural change as if they where banned in America, so you cannot say because the fear of guns in civy's hands has dropped or gone the criminals are now using guns, because the fear was not there in the first place! maybe 5 or 6 people per town had a hand gun, thats it, we where not like America so you cannot view us from the American stand point, hand guns where Rare, not common. There is no link from the banning of hand guns to the rising Gun Crime rates, anyone trying to claim their is, is being very dishonest, as they often are American's writing for American audiences, and fail to mention the fact that the gun culture of America did not exist here!
The reasons handguns were rare in England is because your government, fearing Red revolution after World War I, gradually began dispossessing you of them. There was a time when they were freely available there, and about as common as they were here. There is a link between the banning of hand guns and the rising crime rates. Criminals in your country are emboldened by more lenient treatment in your courts, by the fact that people have been disarmed, and most of all by the fact that your government has essentially criminalized self defense. If you shoot an intruder in your home in England, even if he was armed himself and threatening you and your family, you can pretty much count on it that you will be charged with murder. In this environment, criminals become more and more brazen because they know that people will be cowed. Even if their victims should posess the means with which to defend themselves (unlikely anymore), they will almost certainly not dare do so because the government will step in and charge them with a crime if they do, and if convicted, they could do hard time. Self defense is no longer recognized as justification for homicide.
There is really good study on this available. It's called "Guns and Violence", by Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm, and examines the history of firearms, gun control laws and violent crime in England. Here is a link to an article which mentions the book, and deals with some of the myths of gun control:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell.html
(This link will only take you to the latest article by this columnist, so scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on "Thomas Sowell Archives", then scroll down to the article for 11/26/02. There are two follow up artticles on this subject as well.
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