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I'm sorry if I'm asking a stupid question, and I'm genuinely curious. I hear that line of reasoning often, "well criminals would do it anyway", but is that real

I'm sorry if I'm asking a stupid question, and I'm genuinely curious. I hear that line of reasoning often, "well criminals would do it anyway", but is that really true? In the UK, guns are heavily restricted and we definitely have criminals but our gun crime is very low. There must be some reason these criminals are not using guns? I'd wager that it's because most people do not have guns, so they're harder to access, less chance of criminals being able to access. Wouldn't that be the same in the US too?

hutzlibu 4y ago
I do agree, that it is very possible to reduce the number of guns around and that then it is also harder for criminals to get one. But as far as I know, now it is also pretty much illegal to carry a knive around in the UK, as the crime with knives were and are very high (but still lower than the US). But in general I do not agree to the idea to reduce the problem to the number of guns. Germany for example has a quite high number of guns per capita (higher than one would expect) and so has switzerland, but both have lower homicide rates than the UK. I would rather focus on the reasons, why someone goes homicidal.
ajsnigrutin 4y ago
Nope. US already has a lot of weapons, and getting them illegaly is a lot easier, than in UK, where they literally have to smuggle them from abroad, and being an island makes it even harder. I live in the balkans, and getting a gun here is very hard, almost impossible. People still get shot, and during the "wild 90s" here, there were a lot of shootings, even mass ones (not during the war, but after, or in in-war areas). The only difference is, that we have "different criminals" here, so when someone gets shot, both the shooter and the shot person usually know why they're shooting and why they're being shot, and it's rarely without a good reason.
- throwaway0a5e 4y ago
  >The only difference is, that we have "different criminals" here, so when someone gets shot, both the shooter and the shot person usually know why they're shooting and why they're being shot, and it's rarely without a good reason. No, you don't. The overwhelming majority of murders in the US follow the same pattern. Basically the drug industry DIYing the the kind of violent enforcement of business disputes that "real businesses" use courts and state violence for. People going postal is a rounding error.
- bratbag 4y ago
  The UK used to have a lot of weapons. Then we started controlling them and they slowly went out of circulation. Gun control will not stop all gun crime tomorrow, but 10-15 years from now mass shootings will be far rarer than today.

hutzlibu 4y ago

I do agree, that it is very possible to reduce the number of guns around and that then it is also harder for criminals to get one. But as far as I know, now it is also pretty much illegal to carry a knive around in the UK, as the crime with knives were and are very high (but still lower than the US). But in general I do not agree to the idea to reduce the problem to the number of guns. Germany for example has a quite high number of guns per capita (higher than one would expect) and so has switzerland, but both have lower homicide rates than the UK. I would rather focus on the reasons, why someone goes homicidal.

ajsnigrutin 4y ago

Nope. US already has a lot of weapons, and getting them illegaly is a lot easier, than in UK, where they literally have to smuggle them from abroad, and being an island makes it even harder. I live in the balkans, and getting a gun here is very hard, almost impossible. People still get shot, and during the "wild 90s" here, there were a lot of shootings, even mass ones (not during the war, but after, or in in-war areas). The only difference is, that we have "different criminals" here, so when someone gets shot, both the shooter and the shot person usually know why they're shooting and why they're being shot, and it's rarely without a good reason.

throwaway0a5e 4y ago
>The only difference is, that we have "different criminals" here, so when someone gets shot, both the shooter and the shot person usually know why they're shooting and why they're being shot, and it's rarely without a good reason. No, you don't. The overwhelming majority of murders in the US follow the same pattern. Basically the drug industry DIYing the the kind of violent enforcement of business disputes that "real businesses" use courts and state violence for. People going postal is a rounding error.
bratbag 4y ago
The UK used to have a lot of weapons. Then we started controlling them and they slowly went out of circulation. Gun control will not stop all gun crime tomorrow, but 10-15 years from now mass shootings will be far rarer than today.