Tapsearch Com EditorSerious gun crime up in UK
January 26th 2007 02:39
They just don't get it. Yesterday I noted how DC's mayor admitted his city has both the strictest gun control laws and close to the highest crime rate in the country. Now, folks in the UK are complaining of their high (and once again increasing) severe gun crimes. Both governments ban handguns completely.
Odd thing: Both called for more and better gun control. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, you know the drill.
From UK's The Times:
"Robberies at gunpoint increased by 10 per cent last year in England and Wales...
"The figures include armed robberies in the street, which rose by 9 per cent, and armed robberies in homes, which almost doubled. The figures have been falling for the past four years...
"The total number of robberies at gunpoint rose to 1,439 and the number of gun robberies at residential properties jumped by 46 per cent to 645, an increase of 204 and more than five times the level recorded when Labour came to power...
"Overall, gun crime fell last year...But killings by strangers have almost doubled to 302 since Labour came to power."
A quick note on severe gun crime having fallen in previous years: It may be true, but the UK's ban went into effect ten years ago, not four. So, neither this specific increase nor the previous decrease is due to gun control, because gun laws didn't change in those years.
But the UK's overall gun crime problem got worse after the ban went into effect. It's very likely that, at least in part, this is due to criminals knowing their victims won't bear arms. Gun robberies at residential properties are a case in point -- in the US, thieves make sure homeowners aren't home to avoid gunfights, but in the UK there is a much higher rate of "hot burglary."
And John Lott has written:
"Crime was not supposed to rise after handguns were banned in 1997. Yet, since 1996 the serious violent crime rate has soared by 69%: robbery is up by 45% and murders up by 54%. Before the law, armed robberies had fallen by 50% from 1993 to 1997, but as soon as handguns were banned the robbery rate shot back up, almost back to their 1993 levels.
"The 2000 International Crime Victimization Survey, the last survey done, shows the violent-crime rate in England and Wales was twice the rate in the U.S. When the new survey for 2004 comes out, that gap will undoubtedly have widened even further as crimes reported to British police have since soared by 35%, while declining 6% in the U.S."
Tell all that to the UK's government. Even if they disagree that gun control actually increases gun crime, they should be admitting that it doesn't solve it, either.
But:
"David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary, said: '...Gun crime is mainly fuelled by gang warfare and drug addiction, which is a consequence of Labour’s failing drugs policy. It is exacerbated by our porous borders, which allow illegal weapons to flow into the country.'”
This would at least hold some logic if England had loosened its borders policy, which I can't seem to find any evidence of -- Davis is addressing the increase in crime, not the overall high incidence of it. When explaining a change in one variable, you need to find another variable that also changed. If border security stays the same and gun crime rises, the border security can't very well cause the gun crime increase.
It's a common response from gun-grabbers, though, as the DC mayor example showed. When gun control doesn't work, say other countries or areas -- with lower crime rates than yours -- are flooding your gun-free zone with illegal weapons.
Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://www.therationale.com.
Odd thing: Both called for more and better gun control. Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result, you know the drill.
From UK's The Times:
"Robberies at gunpoint increased by 10 per cent last year in England and Wales...
"The figures include armed robberies in the street, which rose by 9 per cent, and armed robberies in homes, which almost doubled. The figures have been falling for the past four years...
"The total number of robberies at gunpoint rose to 1,439 and the number of gun robberies at residential properties jumped by 46 per cent to 645, an increase of 204 and more than five times the level recorded when Labour came to power...
"Overall, gun crime fell last year...But killings by strangers have almost doubled to 302 since Labour came to power."
A quick note on severe gun crime having fallen in previous years: It may be true, but the UK's ban went into effect ten years ago, not four. So, neither this specific increase nor the previous decrease is due to gun control, because gun laws didn't change in those years.
But the UK's overall gun crime problem got worse after the ban went into effect. It's very likely that, at least in part, this is due to criminals knowing their victims won't bear arms. Gun robberies at residential properties are a case in point -- in the US, thieves make sure homeowners aren't home to avoid gunfights, but in the UK there is a much higher rate of "hot burglary."
And John Lott has written:
"Crime was not supposed to rise after handguns were banned in 1997. Yet, since 1996 the serious violent crime rate has soared by 69%: robbery is up by 45% and murders up by 54%. Before the law, armed robberies had fallen by 50% from 1993 to 1997, but as soon as handguns were banned the robbery rate shot back up, almost back to their 1993 levels.
"The 2000 International Crime Victimization Survey, the last survey done, shows the violent-crime rate in England and Wales was twice the rate in the U.S. When the new survey for 2004 comes out, that gap will undoubtedly have widened even further as crimes reported to British police have since soared by 35%, while declining 6% in the U.S."
Tell all that to the UK's government. Even if they disagree that gun control actually increases gun crime, they should be admitting that it doesn't solve it, either.
But:
"David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary, said: '...Gun crime is mainly fuelled by gang warfare and drug addiction, which is a consequence of Labour’s failing drugs policy. It is exacerbated by our porous borders, which allow illegal weapons to flow into the country.'”
This would at least hold some logic if England had loosened its borders policy, which I can't seem to find any evidence of -- Davis is addressing the increase in crime, not the overall high incidence of it. When explaining a change in one variable, you need to find another variable that also changed. If border security stays the same and gun crime rises, the border security can't very well cause the gun crime increase.
It's a common response from gun-grabbers, though, as the DC mayor example showed. When gun control doesn't work, say other countries or areas -- with lower crime rates than yours -- are flooding your gun-free zone with illegal weapons.
Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://www.therationale.com.
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