"Shot up" by ... 1.5% ? Given stats in other countries, that seems quite a modest rise. Of course the difficulty is that you never know what would have happened without the changes - it could have been better ... or much worse. There is also the 'after effect' of legislation where people sell things that are no longer allowed, thus causing a blib in the number of guns in circulation (perhaps a possibility in the UK after the botched Dunblaine legislation?)
Just imagine what happens when and if the US were to suddenly have a new law that disarms the law abiding citizens of this country where it is illegal to own any type of weapon as a means of self defense. What percentage of crime do you think will go up as a result of the new law?
Quoting extreme examples like Hitler and Stalin is a poor argument IMHO.
It's a fine example for what happens when the citizens of Germany allows their Government to disarm the people of personal firearms or any kind of weapon that is used as a means of self defense during the period of 1938 to 1945. Then suddently the German police got replaced by German Soliders and the Gestapo.
How many innocent people have died because they had nothing to defend themselves because some asshat didn't like them for whatever reason it may be, may it be a Jew, homosexual, JW, Gypsy, black, mentally challanged, physically challanged, etc?
What makes you think it could not happen here in the US? It's not happening now, but what about 50 years from now? 100 years from now?
It took one crafty man in Germany to change the entire government to his liking. One day, it could happen to the US the same. We may have a crafty person in politics that could change the entire government from what we know now to something that could be a major nightmare to every citizen in the US. Which is why the US consitution is in place to prevent what your King had done to our country over 200 years ago.
We want to make sure it never happens again. But the liberals are forgetting what our country stands for and what we are trying to prevent from ever happening again. Like the old saying goes, "If man forgets the past, man is forever destined to repeat it". We may wind up losing our freedom one day if we allowed some crafty man to rule over our country just as Germany once did. I hope to God it doesn't, but we can never know nor can we forsee the future.
I think the real problem is not 'having gun control' but how do you get there after allowing everyone to have guns? I don't think the USA could ever change even if it wanted to and needed to.
We won't as long as there's folks like us making a stand for our rights to bear arms. The only way for the anti-firearm nut to change that is to kill us all. Good luck if they can pull it off. We will not back down for our rights for self defense of family and property.
Making it illegal to carry guns is a change. here's why:
Before: Guy stopped in the street carrying a gun. Not caught 'committing a crime' as such so goes free. Hard to catch actually pulling the trigger.
After: Guy stopped in the street carrying a gun. 5 Years. Ah ... much better.
That's what makes it all so scary. It will put good people in prisons just as much as the bad people. I'm talking about good people who care about their families, themselves, other good people, property, etc.
The problem the UK faces is that replica guns are so easy to purchase and convert into *real* guns but legislating against a replica is difficult - where do you draw the line ... PS2 games, cap-guns, water pistols etc ...
Ha ha, yeah, can you convert a PS2 game console to go out and actually kill real people??? Gimme a break!
Yizuman