Anyone see the deliberate contradiction in their hype of gun-crime?
"Working with rudimentary tools in the basements of their homes, the pair had set themselves up as armourers to the local underworld, converting blank firing pistols into lethal weapons."
"Police intelligence suggests Shabir and Hussain were the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of similar gun factories have been set up in homes across the country and detectives admit guns are being put on the streets more quickly than they can take them off."
That's the story the police keep trotting out, that replicas, blank firers and air pistols are being converted to fire 22 LR.
However, the police also like to trot out the claim that you can buy a proper 9mm handgun for £200 in almost any pub in the country:
"As well as being converted from air guns and blank firing weapons, handguns are being imported from eastern Europe and beyond. A good quality semi-automatic handgun can be bought on the streets of London for as little as £200."
Makes you wonder why they bother converting guns, doesn't it? The sort of good quality blank firers and replica that can be converted cost at least £80, then you have to convert them, and sell them through illegal contacts. How would they actually make money?
It's hype. There were less than 100 people shot dead in Britain last year, compared to 10,000+ in America. And WE have an epidemic of gun crime????
Yahooo! We don't have many gun deaths but we all get robbed, raped , and live in fear because the only ones armed are the crooks! Yahooo!
But we don't. I "live in fear" that some kid will try to steal my car stereo when the car's parked outside. By and large, the crooks aren't armed. Almost every shooting in Britain is domestic, or one drug dealer shooting another.
Sorry, I's rather take my chances in a shoot out with some scumbag than let them come into my house, rape my wife, kill me and take my baby all in the name of ruducing gun deaths.
Do you know why people break in to other peoples houses? To steal things (and not babies, either)
Families are far safer when an unarmed burgular breaks in, than when an armed one breaks in and a gunfight develops.
There's a interesting site by the Nashville police, they detail the press releases for all the serious crimes in Nashville. You never have to go back far for a few good illustrations:
"September 30, 2003
Detectives are working to confirm the identities of the two would-be robbers who this afternoon fatally wounded the owner of Unique Hair Design at 720 Murfreesboro Road.
Wayne T. Martin, 56, of Mt. Juliet, died at 3:45 p.m. during surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Shortly before 2 p.m. today, Martin and a customer were inside Unique Hair Design when two men wearing red bandanas over their faces entered. At least one of the suspects was armed with a pistol. Martin immediately ran into a closet area and yelled to employees of an adjoining business, King’s Florist, that he was being robbed and to call the police. The suspects then retreated from Unique Hair Design.
Martin retrieved a revolver from the business and ran outside. It appears that Martin and the suspects exchanged gunfire as the suspects ran to their car that was parked on the side of the business. Martin was hit and made it back inside the building. An ambulance was summoned and he was transported to Vanderbilt."
If he'd left it at calling for help, he'd still be alive.
Incidentally:
"Martin, today’s victim, is the same man who fatally wounded robbery suspect Michael Swilley on March 30, 2001. Swilley robbed King’s Florist at knifepoint. The shop owner yelled for help. Martin saw Swilley fleeing on foot, got into a vehicle and confronted him in the parking lot of a car dealership a short distance away. During the confrontation, Martin fatally wounded Swilley.
On August 26, 2002, Martin pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for Swilley’s death. He was sentenced to four years probation."
Seems being on probation didn't stop him having a gun either.
And to put the number of guns in perspective:
Nottingham has almost exactly half the population of Nashville.
From the Guardian report:
"For the past 12 months police in Nottingham have been running Operation Stealth, an anti-firearms initiative. The team has made more than 580 arrests and recovered 160 weapons, "
160!!! (note "weapons", not neccessarily guns)
From a Nashville police press release last month:
"Over the past five years (1998-2002), Metro police officers have seized 11,744 guns, the vast majority of which were being carried illegally or were used in some type of crime. January through July of this year, 1,370 guns were confiscated."
