Your views on gun laws in the UK

Soldato
Joined
8 Apr 2009
Posts
12,702
Thankfully never. However, the law doesn't currently protect me from criminals with weapons, it just ensures that only criminals have weapons.

I'm fully aware of that thanks, did the new patronising attitude come with the name change, because you used to be a much better debater than this.

Not really I just find it like debating with Stockhausen tbh but the other side of the coin.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
24 Sep 2005
Posts
35,557
Gun law is one of the rare circumstances whereby I know I cannot provide hard evidence in relation to harm to justify illegality, but I still support the ban. It is an entirely moral and opinionated stance. Guns have almost zero value to members of the public. I don't think society would benefit from making them widely availible and I believe that making them legal itself sends a wrong message out to society regardless of what educational messaged are put in place.

A total Devlin argument if there ever was one, but it's convincing enough for me.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
50,385
Location
Plymouth
The law lowers the likelihood that you will encounter a criminal with a firearm, it also lowers the likelihood that a criminal with a firearm would actually use it.

The statistics don't really back this up though, because if they did, the murder rate would have dropped when guns were banned, instead it carried on rising for another 5 years. Also, protecting me from a firearm, when the criminal just substitutes another weapon isn't really protecting me at all.

Also the public reaction to anyone with or suspected of having a firearm is far greater in this country than the US, and as such is far more likely to be reported.....not to mention that the law does protect you from criminals with weapons, we have armed response units withing our police forces and unlike joe public, they are actually trained to deal with such situations.

The police can only ever be a reactive force, that means there's always a time lag before they can get to you. In this country, we seem to have been stripped of our ability to protect ourselves (with a few exceptions, but they tend to require years of training to do well), on the expectation that the police will turn up and clear up your corpse afterwards, it's not really good enough.

Furthermore, this doesn't address the fundamental civil rights issue that the government has not made a valid, evidence based case for blanket firearms bans, instead relying on kneejerk responses to the very rare nutter to strip rights away from thousands of people who enjoyed a hobby in a perfectly law abiding manner.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Aug 2008
Posts
4,936
Location
Manchester.
I don't want the UK to be like the USA. Britain is better and one of the reasons are the gun laws.

FREEDOM IS NOT IMPORTANT as long as the law is good and makes things better.

Freedom = FreeDoom.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
8 Apr 2009
Posts
12,702
Yes I'm ex military, including extensive experience in CT and MCT, which is why I know exactly how difficult it is to source automatic assault rifles in the UK.....

Not strictly true I know someone who can get you a Mac-10 in how many minutes was it? (I know technically speaking it's not a automatic rifle but beggars can't be choosers when there's-a-carnage to be reaping).
 
Associate
Joined
13 Mar 2012
Posts
681
Location
Tampere Finland
Is anyone apart from me actually going to present any statistics to support their position, or is this going to be another OCUK gun laws thread where the only side that provides any evidence is the gun bans are pointless lobby and everyone else just goes on and on about how they think the world should be?

If guns should be banned, then it should be based on evidence. I respect some of the people holding the alternative view to me in this thread, so please, show me the evidence. (Just don't post pointless 'gun murder/gun suicide' numbers are they are meaningless. General rates are far more relevant)


Everyone knows statistics tell the story of whatever the creator wishes for them to.

Guns kill people, by limiting or not using guns, less people will be killed by guns. Its quite obvious really.

Do you trust people in general? Do you often leave your house unlocked and doors wide open? Would you feel comfortable if you saw a large group of young individuals in hooded attire carrying knives and firearms? How about inviting them round for tea? How about taking it to a football match?

Even if it accidentily goes off, its just an accident, right?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
50,385
Location
Plymouth
Everyone knows statistics tell the story of whatever the creator wishes for them to.

Guns kill people, by limiting or not using guns, less people will be killed by guns. Its quite obvious really.

But less people being killed by guns is utterly irrelevant if the same number of people are killed overall.

Do you trust people in general? Do you often leave your house unlocked and doors wide open? Would you feel comfortable if you saw a large group of young individuals in hooded attire carrying knives and firearms? How about inviting them round for tea? How about taking it to a football match?

Even if it accidentily goes off, its just an accident, right?

What on earth are you talking about?
 
Caporegime
Joined
5 Sep 2010
Posts
25,572
Is anyone apart from me actually going to present any statistics to support their position, or is this going to be another OCUK gun laws thread where the only side that provides any evidence is the gun bans are pointless lobby and everyone else just goes on and on about how they think the world should be?

If guns should be banned, then it should be based on evidence. I respect some of the people holding the alternative view to me in this thread, so please, show me the evidence. (Just don't post pointless 'gun murder/gun suicide' numbers are they are meaningless. General rates are far more relevant)

Four times as many murders in the USA per 100,000 population and two thirds of those were caused by firearms.

In 2010 there were 12,996 murders in the USA (~1 per 24,000 population) with 8,775 of those caused by firearms.

In the UK there were 619 murders in total (~1 per 100,000 population).

Guns for the general population, no thanks.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
21 Aug 2010
Posts
5,798
If guns should be banned,

The ''Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997'' act 1 and 2 was a DIRECT result to Dunblane (Hungerford massacre also helped).
It now makes another Dunblane impossible to occur which was exactly what the law set-out to do.

IT WAS NOT introduced to reduce gun crime :rolleyes:
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
50,385
Location
Plymouth
Equally someone posted the respective weighted incidences of related guncrime between the UK and US.

The difference was rather significant.

Was it broken down by state to reflect the fact that gun control varies widely and there is a significant association between increasing gun control and increasing crime (look at D.C)

Also, looking at 'gun crime' rather than 'crime' is a rather pointless comparison. You need to look at overall crime rates, because a murder still counts if it's done by another weapon.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
50,385
Location
Plymouth
The ''Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997'' act 1 and 2 was a DIRECT result to Dunblane (Hungerford massacre also helped).
It now makes another Dunblane impossible to occur which was exactly what the law set-out to do.

IT WAS NOT introduced to reduce gun crime :rolleyes:

Thanks for proving my point.
 
Back
Top Bottom