The morally serious argument of the pro-gun lobby

Yesterday, libfreeordie posted a link from someone that had tweeted this:

“In 1996, there was a shooting at a primary school in Scotland. 16 children ages 5-6 were killed, along with one teacher. The following year, the UK banned the private ownership of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of calibre. There have been no school shootings since.”

Have you taken a look at what happened to the overall crime rate in the UK after gun bans went into effect? Gun crime increased by 89% between 1998 and 2009. In some parts of the country, the number of offences has increased more than five-fold. In eighteen police areas, gun crime at least doubled. The Metropolitan Police now has replaced some of the famously unarmed “Bobbies” with armed patrols on some streets and officers armed with “sub-machine guns” are engaged in routine policing for the first time.

From the BBC in 2001:

A new study suggests the use of handguns in crime rose by 40% in the two years after the weapons were banned.

The research, commissioned by the Countryside Alliance’s Campaign for Shooting, has concluded that existing laws are targeting legitimate users of firearms rather than criminals.

The ban on ownership of handguns was introduced in 1997 as a result of the Dunblane massacre, when Thomas Hamilton opened fire at a primary school leaving 16 children and their teacher dead.

But the report suggests that despite the restrictions on ownership the use of handguns in crime is rising.

The Centre for Defence Studies at Kings College in London, which carried out the research, said the number of crimes in which a handgun was reported increased from 2,648 in 1997/98 to 3,685 in 1999/2000.

It also said there was no link between high levels of gun crime and areas where there were still high levels of lawful gun possession.

Of the 20 police areas with the lowest number of legally held firearms, 10 had an above average level of gun crime.

And of the 20 police areas with the highest levels of legally held guns only two had armed crime levels above the average.

The campaign’s director, David Bredin, said: “It is crystal clear from the research that the existing gun laws do not lead to crime reduction and a safer place.

From The Telegraph in 2003:

“Since the Government’s “total ban” five years ago, there are more and more guns being used by more and more criminals in more and more crimes. Now, in the wake of Birmingham’s New Year bloodbath, there are calls for the total ban to be made even more total: if the gangs refuse to obey the existing laws, we’ll just pass more laws for them not to obey. According to a UN survey from last month, England and Wales now have the highest crime rate of the world’s 20 leading nations. One can query the methodology of the survey while still recognising the peculiar genius by which British crime policy has wound up with every indicator going haywire – draconian gun control plus vastly increased gun violence plus stratospheric property crime.”

Gun control laws have the perverse effect of increasing crime because they disarm law-abiding citizens, leaving them defenceless against lawbreakers, who aren’t going to be “controlled” by gun control laws.

Resist We Much on December 17, 2012 at 1:44 PM