Britain has a huge amount of what they call "knife crime". Edged weapon assaults, deaths, and recovered bodies of victims are reported every day in UK media. Since criminals have less easy access to firearms, they use knives, easily obtainable in almost any household. Many recent attacks upon soldiers and policemen there by emissaries of the "religion of peace" were done with edged weapons. Criminals are still armed and kill in UK, they just use means other than firearms.
In the interests of full disclosure, the murder rate is still lower here in the UK than it is in the States. However, that appears to be nothing to do with our gun laws, since European countries with much more relaxed firearms laws (e.g. Czech Republic, Austria) and much higher rates of legal gun ownership (e.g. Austria, France, Germany, Czech Republic) have even lower murder rates than the UK does. Culture seems to trump ease of access to firearms as an indicator of murder, suicide or violent crime rates.
That said, criminals don't tend to pick fair fights. They tend to look for victims they think will be easily intimidated or easily overpowered, they usually have the advantage of surprise and they *always* have the advantage of being able to pick the ground and the mark. If things don't look right, they can just walk away.
Knife armed criminals facing unarmed victims get two extra advantages: the knife and their own physical strength. Smaller, frailer, outnumbered victims (i.e. almost all of them) stand little chance.
Firearms level the playing field. The older man or the smaller woman get to fight back on much more equal terms when both parties have access to firearms. Yes, the fight becomes potentially lethal, but where knives are involved it already was (for the victim, anyway) and the risk of death to the aggressor surely must have a deterrant effect all of its own.
Firearms ownership was barely regulated at all in Britain only 100 years ago. You could legally buy a machine gun with no paperwork, yet the streets then were even safer then than they are now. My opinion is that re-legalising firearms ownership and defensive carry in the UK would probably further reduce violent crime here and would certainly not result in the sort of bloodbath the tabloid press would have us believe is the inevitable outcome of such a move.
However, it doesn't further the aims of the state, therefore it'll never happen.
@RogerC Thank you for your insightful post from someone living in the UK. There are times when I have visited, that I had felt very uncomfortable and unsafe without my sidearm. I like the fact that here, as an older, disabled person, I can at least even the playing field. I am a firm believer in the saying "Sam Colt made all men equal".
4 comments:
100% of Libertards are liars.
... no statistics there - just de trooff!
III
Britain has a huge amount of what they call "knife crime". Edged weapon assaults, deaths, and recovered bodies of victims are reported every day in UK media. Since criminals have less easy access to firearms, they use knives, easily obtainable in almost any household. Many recent attacks upon soldiers and policemen there by emissaries of the "religion of peace" were done with edged weapons. Criminals are still armed and kill in UK, they just use means other than firearms.
@ ag42b:
In the interests of full disclosure, the murder rate is still lower here in the UK than it is in the States. However, that appears to be nothing to do with our gun laws, since European countries with much more relaxed firearms laws (e.g. Czech Republic, Austria) and much higher rates of legal gun ownership (e.g. Austria, France, Germany, Czech Republic) have even lower murder rates than the UK does. Culture seems to trump ease of access to firearms as an indicator of murder, suicide or violent crime rates.
That said, criminals don't tend to pick fair fights. They tend to look for victims they think will be easily intimidated or easily overpowered, they usually have the advantage of surprise and they *always* have the advantage of being able to pick the ground and the mark. If things don't look right, they can just walk away.
Knife armed criminals facing unarmed victims get two extra advantages: the knife and their own physical strength. Smaller, frailer, outnumbered victims (i.e. almost all of them) stand little chance.
Firearms level the playing field. The older man or the smaller woman get to fight back on much more equal terms when both parties have access to firearms. Yes, the fight becomes potentially lethal, but where knives are involved it already was (for the victim, anyway) and the risk of death to the aggressor surely must have a deterrant effect all of its own.
Firearms ownership was barely regulated at all in Britain only 100 years ago. You could legally buy a machine gun with no paperwork, yet the streets then were even safer then than they are now. My opinion is that re-legalising firearms ownership and defensive carry in the UK would probably further reduce violent crime here and would certainly not result in the sort of bloodbath the tabloid press would have us believe is the inevitable outcome of such a move.
However, it doesn't further the aims of the state, therefore it'll never happen.
@RogerC Thank you for your insightful post from someone living in the UK. There are times when I have visited, that I had felt very uncomfortable and unsafe without my sidearm. I like the fact that here, as an older, disabled person, I can at least even the playing field. I am a firm believer in the saying "Sam Colt made all men equal".
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