British gun owners get hammered againAll too often, government officials believe the cure for a failing policy is more of the same. That's the case with a near-total ban in firearms in Great Britain. Gun control activists and politicians in the United States often point to Britain and Australia as models of "reasonable" gun control. We'll follow their lead and use England as an example.
Since a ban on all handguns, most rifles and many shotguns went into effect in 1997, violent crime has risen 69 percent, with murders going up 54 percent. That bucks the trend of previous years, when the rate of violent crime was falling, according to economist John Lott of the American Enterprise Institute.
Is it a coincidence that the sudden increase in violent crime followed the ban? Perhaps; there's no hard data yet to be able to make a causal connection. But is it also a coincidence that the same phenomenon has been noticed in Australia and New Zealand after those countries enacted strict gun control laws that left law-abiding citizens unarmed and at the mercy of armed criminals? That's a major drawback to gun-control laws -- only law-abiding citizens follow them. Criminals aren't going to turn in their firearms just because the government says to. The government says robbing people is wrong, but robbers still do it; that's what makes them criminals -- contempt for the laws of society.
In parts of the world where firearms laws are fairly liberal, such as the United States, criminals must weigh the chances of an intended victim being armed. As the old saying goes: "God made men, Col. Colt made them equal." A firearm can make a 90-pound grandmother the equal of any thug who means her harm.
If, however, the odds seem to favor the criminals, as when ordinary citizens are known to be unarmed, it's likely the bad guys will go ahead with their unlawful plans. And usually it doesn't affect the strata of society making the laws; average people without security alarms and body guards are most often the chosen targets of criminals.
With this in mind, British officials are responding to the increase in violent crime by ... you guessed it, further lowering the ability of people to protect their lives and well being with firearms.
Even if the British won't learn from their mistakes, we can hope politicians on this side of the ocean will.
The Gazette - Colorado Springs, CO
http://www.desertdispatch.com/2005/110744085561235.html
