Sheik said:
As for your argument about guns south of the border, I suggest you check your facts before you speak. The so called gun control is not culling the illegal guns that are used by criminals. In fact its helping to increase it. All you need to do is look to the UK. Handguns are banned in that country yet gun crimes are at an all time high over there.
I am well aware of the facts, Sheik. There are far more handguns and automatic weapons in the US than in any other "western" country, and there are far more deaths by these weapons than in any other "western" country.
I fully agree with you that gun control in itself does not solve the problem. Clearly it is the amount of
handguns - legal and illegal -in a country that matters, which is the reason the US will always have a
large number of gun deaths, and by its proximity, Canada will always have many illegal handguns, and a fair
amount of gun crimes. Most european countries have had a history of strict gun control since WWII, so
handguns are scarce.
Here are some data on the UK:
Homicide and firearms crime
In 2005/06 there were 766 offences initially recorded as homicide by the police in England and Wales (including the 52 victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings),[17] a rate of 1.4 per 100,000 of population. Only 50 (6.6%) were committed with firearms, one being with an air weapon.[18] The homicide rate for London was 2.4 per 100,000 in the same year (1.7 when excluding the 7 July bombings).[19]
By comparison, 5.5 murders per 100,000 of population were reported by police in the United States in 2000, of which 70% involved the use of firearms (75% of which were illegally obtained).[20] New York City, with a population size similar to London (over 8 million residents), reported 6.9 murders per 100,000 people in 2004.[21]
The rise in UK gun crime is a long term trend that is apparently unaffected by the state of UK firearms legislation. [22] Before the 1997 ban, handguns were only held by 0.1% of the population,[23] and while the number of crimes involving firearms in England and Wales increased from 13,874 in 1998/99 to 24,070 in 2002/03, they remained relatively static at 24,094 in 2003/04, and have since fallen to 21,521 in 2005/06. The latter includes 3,275 crimes involving imitation firearms and 10,437 involving air weapons, compared to 566 and 8,665 respectively in 1998/99.[24] Only those "firearms" positively identified as being imitations or air weapons (e.g. by being recovered by the police or by being fired) are classed as such, so the actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher. In 2005/06, 8,978 of the total of 21,521 firearms crimes (42%) were for criminal damage.[25]
Since 1998, the number of people injured by firearms in England and Wales increased by 110%,[26] from 2,378 in 1998/99 to 5,001 in 2005/06. "Injury" in this context means by the use of the gun as a blunt instrument or as a threat, or by being shot. In 2005/06, 87% of such injuries were defined as "slight," which includes the use of firearms as a threat only. The number of homicides committed with firearms has remained between a range of 46 and 97 for the past decade, standing at 50 in 2005/06 (a fall from 75 the previous year). Between 1998/99 and 2005/06, there have been only two fatal shootings of police officers in England and Wales. Over the same period there were 107 non-fatal shootings of police officers - an average of just 9.7 per year.[27]
, that pro football player-forgot his name-was shot and killed by some young men robbing his home. So no, all don't stop and think they might get shot while breaking in to a home, they just shoot first before they get shot.
