LOL! yet
another gun thread!
But I can't be arsed with this one. They all end up the same way, but...
Originally posted by Eden
How does making it illegal for honest, law abiding citizens to purchase handguns decrease the murder rate when most crimes involving handguns are committed with illegal weapons?
In the US, it probably couldn't. The time to have acted would be long ago, before your country systematically armed all its criminals. Apparently our legislators here in Britain could see how it would all end up, if we did as the US has done in response to the problem of firearms in the hands of criminals, - ie NOTHING.
Here in Britain, concern was growing with regard to the increasing number of weapons finding their way into criminal hands, and the Firearms Act was passed a couple of years after this report was published.
Blackwell Report of 1918 It will be seen, therefore, that prior to the war there was strong reason for amending the law, and this was recognised by the Government in 1911 when the Bill to which we shall presently refer in detail was drafted under the instructions of the Home Secretary. Strong, however, as the case was in 1911, it is immensely stronger now. We have to face the situation that the war will have added enormously to the world's stock of rifles and pistols, that large numbers of pistols, and possibly other weapons, will have come into the possession of private persons, notably discharged soldiers and their relatives, and that the number of men skilled in the use of firearms will have greatly increased. It must also be borne in mind that we can hardly hope to escape on demobilisation an increase in crime. Large numbers of the criminal classes have entered the Army, both voluntarily and under the Military Service Acts; and however effective may be the measures taken to facilitate the return of discharged soldiers to civil life and peaceful occupations, it would be unreasonable to expect that all these men will be ready to settle down at once to agricultural or industrial employment. There would be additional ground for apprehension if men of this class, and indeed discharged soldiers in general, were permitted to retain any revolvers which have come into their possession during their army service, or to procure them under the easy conditions allowed by the existing law.
Most people here are content with the status quo, although I readily concede that the laws are not 100% perfect, as they would have to be in order for some of the posters in this thread to feel that the law is worthwhile.
The way it works here is that with legislation targetting supply, it is
much more difficult for the criminals to get weapons. Not impossible mind you, but difficult. Some will say "bah, criminals can
always get guns". No, but admittedly, they
sometimes can.
Well, what killjoys those US lawmakers are! Can't you just tell them that guns are inanimate objects blah blah blah and are therefore "not the problem"?
