People giving up their hobby for no purpose. Dont' forget that. Your gun homicide rates haven't changed.
You're forgetting that 1997 was not the first gun control measure Britain ever had. There was a whole line of laws passed, stretching right back to 1903. As I have told you about 500 times, the 1997 measures did not constitute a "ban", as it would have been next to impossible to acquire a handgun even in the years leading up to that. Of course, it suits NRA propaganda merchants to think of it as a "ban" so they can do what you have done and say the homicide rate hasn't changed. The fact is no "gun culture" was ever allowed to develop. And that's why the number of gun deaths in Britain is fewer than 100 per year, while in the US it's about 100 times that. And, for the 500th time, many of those "firearms" you speak of are replicas, even BB guns.
And don't forget to hope over to the other side of the fence when you defend a handgun ban and then opposing an alcohol ban.
Better read up on your own history, and that of Finland 1919-32. Mora posted about the Finnish prohibition of alcohol. According to Mora...
It was tried here from 1919-1932 with disasterous results, alcohol related deaths rose significantly as people started drinking smuggled 96% spirit. It didn't work because we had an "alcohol culture". There was a significant demand for alcohol, even if a portion of the people decided to abide the law, and a criminal underworld developed.
And the story in the USA isn't much different. Bootleggers produced cheap, low grade "liquor", often mixed in an old bath tub, using any old ingredients they could lay their hands on. I've just found a long article, and will quote from it. OK I admit I was wrong - I thought it started in 1926, not 1920.
Thirteen years that damaged America“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve” (Thorton, 15). On Midnight of January 16, 1920, one of the personal habits and customs of most Americans suddenly came to a halt. The Eighteenth Amendment was put into effect and all importing, exporting, transporting, selling, and manufacturing of intoxicating liquor was put to an end. Shortly following the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment, the National Prohibition Act, or the Volstead Act, as it was called because of its author, Andrew J. Volstead, was put into effect. This determined intoxicating liquor as anything having an alcoholic content of anything more than 0.5 percent, omitting alcohol used for medicinal and sacramental purposes. This act also set up guidelines for enforcement (Bowen, 154). Prohibition was meant to reduce the consumption of alcohol, seen by some as the devil’s advocate, and thereby reduce crime, poverty, death rates, and improve the economy and the quality of life. “National prohibition of alcohol -- the ‘noble experiment’ -- was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America” (Thorton, 1). This, however, was undoubtedly to no avail. The Prohibition amendment of the 1920s was ineffective because it was unenforceable, it caused the explosive growth of crime, and it increased the amount of alcohol consumption.
It's a long article, so I'll just add a few bullet points here...
- As a result of the lack of enforcement of the Prohibition Act and the creation of an illegal industry an increase in crime transpired.
- Although towards the beginning of Prohibition this purpose seemed to be fulfilled, the crime rate soon skyrocketed to nearly twice that of the pre-prohibition period.
- Serious crimes, such as homicides, assault, and battery, increased nearly 13 percent, while other crimes involving victims increased 9 percent.
- The major crimes, however, such as homicides, and burglaries, increased 24 percent between 1920 and 1921.
- The contributing factor to the sudden increase of felonies was the organization of crime, especially in large cities. Because liquor was no longer legally available, the public turned to gangsters who readily took on the bootlegging industry and supplied them with liquor.
- “Seldom has law been more flagrantly violated. Not only did Americans continue to manufacture, barter, and possess alcohol; they drank more of it”
- Another downfall of prohibition was that the illegally made products had no standards. Deaths from poisoned liquor rose from 1,064 in 1920 to 4,154 in 1925.
- The drop in alcohol related deaths before prohibition quickly rose during prohibition. Arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct increased 41 percent, while arrests for drunk driving increased 81 percent during prohibition
- “The results of the experiment [prohibition] are clear: ...organized crime grew into an empire; ...disrespect for the law grew; and the per capita consumption of the prohibited substance -- alcohol -- increased dramatically”
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Article source:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/4399/So there you have it. For me, there's enough evidence coming from Finland and America, both of whom dabbled with the disastrous experiment of banning alcohol. These are the reasons I don't want to see alcohol banned in the UK. It would make things worse, not better.
Well Mr. Toad, you seem to have a bit of egg on your face. Would you like to borrow HoldenMcGroin's hanky?
