A few years back when I lived in an apartment, I stopped a burglary of my next door neighbor's apartment by pointing my Kimber at the bad guy(an illegal from Mexico), thus convincing him he should hold still until the police arrived. The apartment was rented by an English couple...the woman was a nurse who worked nights and was home asleep at the time. Later that evening the woman's husband came over to thank me, both he and the police felt that the would be intruder had rape on his mind more than burglary. The gent told me that in England, a neighbor might have called the police, and then locked himself in his apartment. I don't know what the rest of the Brits feel, but the man was thankful that an armed American was watching out for his neighbors, and willing to intervene w/ a gun during their plight. The US is a different place from the UK, so comparing the gun ownership scenarios between the two countires is exactly an apples/oranges thing. It is not our permissive gun ownership laws that have caused so many gun deaths in the US(aside from the occasional accident). What has, and continues to fuel our gun deaths each year is our liberal immigartion laws, along w/ our proximity to Mexico. Castro exiled many criminals from his country once.. they came here, not to the UK. Thousands of illegal immigrants pour over our border each year..most are just looking for a way to feed their family...but many are those w/ criminal intent. Drugs flow easily into our country from South America via Mexico, fueling the continous killing that goes on in our inner cities. The UK is, at least geographically, an island without the same challenges/problems faced by the US. I'm confident that if the UK were in a simialr scenario as ours, gun laws would more closely reflect the needs of the citizenry. I'm not criticizing the UK(or other country's) policy in any way.. if it works great. I am certain however, that if the US were to adapt and actually enforce such a policy, all manner of crime would skyrocket. Although simplistically explained, I hope some of you non-Americans understand why allowing gun ownership here is a good thing.
