Quote:
Originally Posted by Joeaksa
Same here. There are just enough wacko's in this world that gun or not, they very well might try to do something silly. England banned pistols, so now the criminals carry guns... guess they forgot that they are banned. As well now they have banned having a knife in your pocked. I grew up with a pocket knife and will prolly die with one in my pocket. Whats next over there? Cricket bats or kitchen knives? You CANNOT legislate safety!
Law abiding citizens should have the ability to protect themself and as the officer mentioned above, the police cannot be everywhere all the time.
"When seconds count, the police are minutes away"... you guys who have let the Govt take your weapons away from you are betting your life on this.
At least America still has the 2nd admendment... for now.
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Having grown up in NZ and lived in the UK, I find these guns vs no-guns threads highly amusing, but I don't think I have ever responded to one. But here goes nothing
I honestly think it is beyond the comprehension of people living in a country like the UK to even begin to understand the mentality that says I have to have a gun for my own protection and without one I don't feel safe. The idea of feeling that vulnerable and at risk (be it real or preceived) is quite simply alien to us.
Your comments on the UK are somewhat misleading. The UK didn't ban pistols/handguns at any time in recent history, it has for a very long time been difficult to own such guns. The incidence of gun crime in the UK is low. It is difficult to smuggle guns into the UK. To the extent that there is gun crime, it is often the same gun passed around from criminal to criminal, so the idea that "now the criminals carry guns" is for the vast majority of the time completely untrue. We simply don't have much gun crime because there are very few guns. Kind of simple, no? Its not rocket science - you make gun ownership easy and more people will get guns. No matter how "good" the individual gun owner may be, some will be stolen, some sold, some fraudulently obtained, some lost and they end up in the hands of criminals. You can still get a gun in the UK - a shotgun for traps, a rifle to hunt etc - but in the eyes of this society there is basically no legitimate reason to carry a handgun. Frankly if you did carry a handgun, people would suspect you were a criminal (or an undercover cop or spy I guess).
On the knife carry ban, it was introduced for a very specific reason. In some small areas of SE London (particularly) gangs of kids were using knives in fights. Was it widespread? No. Has the introduction of a crime/penalty reduced such fights/deaths? Yes. These were not people carrying a pocket knife in a belt holster, but kids with kitchen knife etc looking for trouble. I cannot imagine and have yet to see reported a single incident of a person carrying a knife for innocent purposes being arrested or even cautioned for carrying a knife. Most of our police actually understand the concepts of discretion and proportionate response (not all and not always, but mostly).
Would you believe that the vast majority of UK police are not armed? Why? They don't need to be, because very few criminals are.
Don't get me wrong, I don't suggest the UK approach would work in the US (in fact, I go so far as to say, I have no idea what would work), but importing US values arounds guns and self-defence and the peculiar right to bear arms (peculiar in the sense that no other country I can think of has this right), is arrogant, ignorant and generally unwelcomed. I suspect that is what has bothered our Canadian friends.