Doesnt surprise me, but i would like to add a few points.
Firstly, our Government is incompetent, has been for most of the last 50 years. Thats why no one votes anymore, its just a poularity contest between morons. Theyve made pretty much everything illegal including breathing and being a alive. (ok thats a slight exageration, but not as much you might hope!) This makes any list of crimes a very long list!
Secondly we've adopted a very odd culture of claiming for everything, you stub your toe on a cobblestone and some poor sod ends up in court. This results in an enourmous amount of claims of crimes (real and imagined) being made. People are more likely to report a crime in a country where they think they'll get some cash for it.
The government response to rising crime (and in fact to everything!) is to raise taxes, and throw more money at it. This money doesnt actually go anywhere useful though, usually ending up in the pocket of somebody who has a job title like "health and safety officer" . The result is a silly number of busybodies running round with clipboards getting in the way of the people trying to do their job (the cops in this case) and slowing them down with questions like "So your a police officer? So what is it you do?" to justify their own existence. These questions usually result in less police officers and a lot of paperwork. The paperwork costs more money, and has to be done by somone. Usually the remaining police officers.
So you end up with a country where the people are being mugged, the clipboard carriers are rich, and the police are tied to their desks with a full inbox.
Maybe im just cynical.
my point? well, the cops dont need guns. Well maybe a few, but theyve got enough already(and all they end up doing anyway is shootin innocents!) Its not like we have many gun totting criminals here. They just need less paperwork and "initiatives" so they can actually get out and do something useful.
edit :
btw steve? whats wrong with gun control in the uk? are u really suggesting that guns would have stoped any of that crime?
For starters most, if not all of the crime your discussing in this survey had nowt to do with guns in the first place. So Gun control works, becouse the casulaty rate would have been far higher otherwise.
Only a few people in Britain own guns, usually for hunting, farmers for pest control etc. Guns are relativly rare amongst the criminal types to.
They are available, but far more trouble than their worth. For starters if your caught with one by the cops your in trouble, cos they'll call in an armed response unit and wont bother asking difficult questions. Secondly, an unlawful person might decide a gun could be of use to him. If he knows you've got one he'll try and take it, leaving you in the unenviable position of having to shoot him, or lose it and be shot yourself.
Which brings us to the big problem with guns, especially with regards to people taking the law into their own hands:
When your found with a smoking gun, standing over a dead body, and with no witness's(or confused and terrified ones) what do you think the cynical british bobby is going to think?
"but officer, he was trying to nick my wallet"
"oh really? prove it."
And what happens if you were mistaken, and person that was "attacking" you, was mentally ill/drunk/suffering/foriegn and you didnt undertand their intentions? They need help/directions or whatever and you draw your weapon....
Its murder, simple as.
