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True. Gun control generally is something a lot of Brits just default to thinking is a necessary thing, while not actually having considered it in much depth. (T
by fidotron 12y ago
True. Gun control generally is something a lot of Brits just default to thinking is a necessary thing, while not actually having considered it in much depth. (This is largely a reflex to the Dunblane incident, and they can't understand why anyone would disagree with the resulting course of action).
The thing is both sides are kind of wrong. London has far more gun crime than much of the US does (personally I ran into three firearms incidents without trying) which really should provoke much more soul searching in the UK than it does (they delude themselves into thinking the whole US is uniformly dangerous), however, British cops, while by no means perfect, are enormously less likely to be in aggressive by default mode. Obviously it does happen quite a bit, but nothing like the same antagonism that you have in North America.
- elwaz 12y ago"London has far more gun crime than much of the US does" Can we get a figure to back that up please? The MET places gun crime figures in greater London at 1570 (http://www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/ http://www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/) with a population of approx 8 million. Which American populations would you compare this to and what are their figures? I've spent a significant amount of time in London and have never once run into any firearms incidents. It would be interesting to me to see the data behind this.
- Crito 12y agoThere is no shortage of small communities across America that have not had a gun crime in decades. Zero stays zero, even when you make it per-capita. Whether or not this is a fair comparison is another matter.
- elwaz 12y agoFair call. To clear that up I would count urbanised centres of a similar population size and density would be a reasonable basis of comparison. I imagine England would have a large number of small communities with zero gun crime as well.