A ? for you guys on the other shore

[Surgeon General]

As I was sitting here thinking about how life is here in the states I started to wounder about how it must be like on the other side of the pond.
I remember when I posted a thread about an incident I had where I went outside my house armed, I noticed a kind of dissbelief in people from the uk. I was inforemd that you are not allowed to own weapons unless they are for hunting/sports, right?
Well what my question is, is the crime rate like really low over there? Does it work, the no firearms I mean, or do the bad guys just use other things like bats, tire irons, knifes, etc..
Do you feel safer with the no weapons law?

[Squeaky]

Hi SG

I think i've posted on gun ownership before, im not an advocate personally.

As for crime here, well - i have a couple of home office spreadsheets showing crime rates in the uk (trend over last 20 years) - but have no US reference to compare to - my gut feeling is that we have less crime in the UK per head of population but perhaps more importantly far less FATAL crime - but thats a feeling only - im sure somebody could come up with the hard facts.

In my own experience, being brought up in one of the roughest areas of the north east, we did not have problems with gangs, nor daily shootings and/or murders - the socially deprived areas are on a much smaller scale - and i think that a big difference, the areas where crime and violence is socially acceptable or even a way of life are very very small.

As for firearms, ive said before - some criminals have them here, and the number is increasing, but to date i'd be surprised to hear of a gun related death on the news more than every few months! (and it is so rare that it would be newsworthy). My argument has always beens that make them readily available and everybody has them then there will be more incidents!regardless of intent -people will get injured..and the criminal element will always be more prepared to do more harm to you
than vice versa, and worse organised crime would have to up the stakes for fear of not being able to compete with an armed police force (we have armed police, just not your average bobby on the beat)
heres a few stats, perhaps you could compare them with your own - and tell me im wrong :)

Theft and handling stolen goods 2,224,000
of which: theft of vehicles 375,000
theft from vehicle 669,000
Criminal damage 946,000
Burglary 906,000
Violence against the person 581,000
Fraud and forgery 335,000
Drugs offences 122,000
Robbery 84,000
Other notifiable offences 66,000
Sexual offences, 38,000
of which: rape 8,000

All notifiable offences 5,301,000
figures of recorded crime England and wales 1999/00

Sorry if im opening myself up to criticism here - my opinion only, and not one well thought through or that im expert on.

all the best
Squeaks

[tripodal]

what a distressing subject for the eve of the eve of christmas... be more cheerful guys!

[dicki]

hummm...... i feel pretty safe because although guns are relativly easily available not many people use them because there is no excuse for having one so when they are caught they are instantly in jail, do not pass go do not collect 200.

also i live in a pretty safe part of the country and i have studied full contact martial arts for 5 or 6 years and i know the best defence to any attack is about 100 meters.

the trouble is if you have a gun pulled on you theres nothing you can do... if you go for your own hypothetical gun and thiers is allready out your dead. if you try to grab thiers and your more than a foot away from then your dead (or at least wounded and then dead) or if you dive out of the way you get dirty then wounded and then dead. guns only work if you stalk some one or catch them at it (as in the case of the guy in your garden) and if i caught someone trying to suffocate my dog with his sholder (is that the story your sticking with ;) ) i'd be pretty happy putting him in an armlock without needing a gun for back up... hell i'd be more worried about him grabbing my gun if i had one.

just my rambling thoughts...

dicki