Do you think the rise is solely due to the ban or might there be other reasons like the disintegration of society in general and the inability of the police/government/parents/anyone to control criminals in a climate that ignores victims and lets wrongdoers get away with murder ?

I take it from the graph that you started your blog in 2001 then?

Too depressing!

A good bit of research there, Keith, even though the results are rather worrying.

The graph clearly shows the decline during the Arms Amnesty period (during which I handed in my two, no longer used, full legal limit sports air-rifles) and yet goes on to display a rapidly increase in the use of (presumably bullet firing) handguns.

Maybe I shouldn't have handed in my air-rifles after all. I was just simply concerned about what could happen if they fell into the wrong hands if I sold them on the second-hand market, as they were quite easily capable of killing if used with the right pellets.

I wonder, was the Arms Amnesty just a publicity stunt intended to boost public morale - as in the slogan which was something like: "The less guns there are out there then the less there are for the criminal to use". Looking at that graph, "Cobblers!" would be my own reply!

Sandy - I think it is due to the fact that criminals with guns now realise that their intended victims don't have a gun and they are "easy meat". If ordinary people were allowed to own a firearm, muggers and burglars would think twice about attacking someone in case they had a gun.

bart - just what are you insinerating? That the rise in gun crime is due to my blog? Cheeky sod!

Pat - I agree. Denying people the right to bear arms is not the answer.

Kevin - Actually it was reported that the serial numbers of some handguns handed in during the amnesty appeared back on the streets in the hands of criminals when they were arrested. How did they get them? You tell me!

"I think it is due to the fact that criminals with guns now realise that their intended victims don't have a gun and they are "easy meat". If ordinary people were allowed to own a firearm, muggers and burglars would think twice about attacking someone in case they had a gun."

You're absolutely right, Keith. Here we have a saying, "If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns..."

Debi - Too true! The same applies to knives here. Even Boy Scouts are not allowed to carry a pocket knife anymore, but the criminal kids carry machettes and kitchen knives etc.

'It's the state of the mind, not the weaponry to hand!'

(As I said myself around thirty years ago).

For every boy-scout who responsibly carried a combination Swiss penknife (certainly back in the 1960's) there were a larger number who carried a flick knife or its variants, including the one spring-loaded type which shot the pointed blade straight out and into the victim.
The difference is that back then it was purely as a threat and rarely if ever used, because the attacker fully understood the consequences of the guaranteed Police arrest and prosecution.
And to me that's where it's all gone wrong over the years, that guarantee has gone - the attacker knows full well there's a very high probability they will get away with it.
Meanwhile any average innocent person found in possession of anything which just happens to have a sharp edge on it faces prison. Including the spotty faced boy scout with his (even plastic) Swiss multiple-tool that's seen most of it's life repairing 13A mains plugtops!
Crazy!

As I said:
'It's the state of the mind, not the weaponry to hand!'

(I will now step down from one of my many 'opinionated ranting' high boxes!).

Sorry - bad grammar:
"there were a larger number who "
did not mean scouts, it meant those other than scouts.

(Now I realise why my spellchecker keeps saying "Fragmented - consider revising". It's actually trying to tell me there maybe a double meaning in wot I have wrote!).

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