Ban on 50 Caliber Weapons

@bungle
Do you have the same population?
Do you have the same racial tension?
Do you have the same poverty rate?

What do you make of this link?

Doesn't sound like the UK's weapon ban had much effect.

The racial tensions, poverty and population are all the responsibilty of your government to manage, if they are managed so poorly as to give rise to high crime then blame your government.

1) the reports you (raphael & snoop) refer to are 2 years old & I did say very little, not none.

2) the collapse of eastern bloc countries has put an enormous amount of weaponry onto the black market that was not there a decade ago

3) with the formation of the EU and the inclusion of eastern european countries, former restrictions on the movement of weapons have been lifted largely through the freedom of unrestricted travel

4) immigrant gang & organised crime rings have entered the UK using legitimate methods of immigration and having seen the UK as a soft touch after the US and Jamaica or war-torn eastern europe, encourage the proliferation of weapons both as a source of income and for control of newly acquired criminal territories within the UK. Territories left open for take-over by the Organised Crime Branch of the Metropolitan Police removing the "old-school" of British gangland. In addition, the police had no intelligentce from within these organisations, nor any experience of dealing with this new immigrant breed of criminal, therefore found it very difficult to combat them.

5) trying to solve society's problems through good social policy is surely a better option than simply letting everyone have a gun and sending the populace out on an each-man-for-themselves mission. We are all part of a greater entity than the indiviual, that is society.

I just don't think throwing more guns at a violent society is the answer. It was that kind of thinking that brought us the delightful concept of M.A.D. during the cold war.

Originally posted by bungle
2) the collapse of eastern bloc countries has put an enormous amount of weaponry onto the black market that was not there a decade ago

...

4) immigrant gang & organised crime rings have entered the UK using legitimate methods of immigration and having seen the UK as a soft touch after the US and Jamaica or war-torn eastern europe, encourage the proliferation of weapons both as a source of income and for control of newly acquired criminal territories within the UK. Territories left open for take-over by the Organised Crime Branch of the Metropolitan Police removing the "old-school" of British gangland. In addition, the police had no intelligentce from within these organisations, nor any experience of dealing with this new immigrant breed of criminal, therefore found it very difficult to combat them.

These instances all refer to criminals. If you ban a .50, they will get it anyway. If you ban assault rifles, they will get them anyway. If you ban handguns, they will get them anyway. What good does it do to take these things away from me?

Most weapons used for criminal acts criminal activities are not guns that were acquired legitimately in the first place. It is much cheaper and harder to trace guns acquired illegally.

5) trying to solve society's problems through good social policy is surely a better option than simply letting everyone have a gun and sending the populace out on an each-man-for-themselves mission. We are all part of a greater entity than the indiviual, that is society.

Again, we are all not out to kill each other over bread at the grocery store. We don't all walk around with handguns tucked under our shirt waiting to get in a fight so we can shoot someone.


As for not spouting about "armed criminal crap:" Isn't one armed criminal enough? One armed criminal who has the intent of hurting or killing those around him could wreak havoc on an unarmed populace. I think you may also be underestimating the number of criminals who have guns and either use them with the intent of killing and/or never get get caught. If someone forces you at gunpoint to give them your wallet, they don't have to kill you to get their way. As long as the possibility still exists in your mind that you may get shot, you will do what they say.

Originally posted by bungle
1) the reports you (raphael & snoop) refer to are 2 years old & I did say very little, not none.

The information you presented was also 2 years old. So, I don't see where that is a problem.

Very little is a relative term. See, the last paragraph of the article to which I linked is the most important.

It was hoped that the measure would reduce the number of handguns available to criminals. According to internal Home Office statistics, however, handgun crime is now at its highest since 1993.

Simply put, the ban on handguns did nothing to curtail handgun related crime.

Edit: Just to contrast those same years to the US crime rates, here is another link.

[edit on 17-9-2004 by Raphael_UO]

Just before lunch one day, a puppet show was put on at school.
It was called �Mr. Bungle goes to lunch�
It was fun to watch.
In the puppet show Mr. Bungle came to the boys room on his way to lunch, he looked at his hands, his hands were dirty and his hair was messy. But, Mr. Bungle didn�t stop to wash his hands or comb his hair he went straight to lunch.

Then�instead of getting into line at the lunchroom, Mr. Bungle pushed everyone aside and went right to the front.
Even though this made the children laugh, no one thought that was a fair thing to do.
Then, in the lunchroom, Mr. Bungle was so clumsy and impolite that he knocked over everything and no one wanted to sit next to him.
And when he finally knocked his own tray off the table, That was the end of the puppet show.
The children knew that even though Mr. Bungle was funny to watch, He wouldn�t be much fun to eat with.
Phil knew that a Mr. Bungle wouldn�t have many friends. He wouldn�t want to be like Mr. Bungle.


Excerpt from: Love is a Fist By Mr. Bungle
Album: Mr. Bungle
Warner Brothers
1991

Seems we have a REAL Mr. Bungle here .

I would have linked a sound file but it's copyrighted and all....