The Enlightenment
2004-05-25 12:15:04 UTC
Bad Law?
Will we now have even more draconian measures in a perverse attempt to
wind back the gun crime rate?
PUBLICATION: Edmonton Journal
DATE: 2004.05.14
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Opinion
PAGE: A18
COLUMN: Lorne Gunter
BYLINE: Lorne Gunter
SOURCE: The Edmonton Journal
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Britain proves gun control is wrong: Gun crime nearly doubled after
law-abiding
Brits surrendered their handguns
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
On March 13, 1996, Thomas Hamilton walked into an elementary school in
Dunblane,
Scotland, with three pistols and shot dead 16 young children and one
of their
teachers. In the wake of this horrific massacre of innocents, a
judicial inquiry
recommended more stringent rules for handgun ownership in Britain, but
cautioned
against an outright ban.
Politicians being politicians, though, they sought to prove they were
acting to
prevent a recurrence of such a shooting (as if anyone can prevent
lunatics from
acting insanely) by passing a law forbidding ordinary civilians from
possessing
handguns. Handgun owners were given until February 1998 to hand in all
their
guns.
In all, about 162,000 handguns and 700 tonnes of ammunition were
surrendered to
police. Jack Straw, currently Britain's foreign secretary, but at the
time the
home secretary, pronounced the hand-in a "tremendous success" and
predicted it
would make England, Scotland and Wales very much safer.
Tuesday, the gun-crime statistics for the first five years of this
experiment in
citizen disarmament were released. And what has been the result? The
incidence
of gun crime in England and Wales has nearly doubled from 13,874 in
1998 to
24,070 in 2003. And the incidence of firearms murder, while thankfully
still
very small, has risen 65 per cent.
Politicians being politicians, they of course have not drawn the
obvious
parallel. When the statistics were released earlier this week, no
official even
mentioned the total handgun ban. (Not even Britain's Olympic sport
shooters are
permitted to own handguns for competition.)
It never even occurred to British politicians and reporters to make a
connection. Banning handguns was an important symbol in the wake of
the Dunblane
shootings. It was the right thing to do at the time. Its intended
consequences,
realized or not, well, they're secondary.
The ban was a "then" solution, the spiral in gun crime is a "now"
problem --
different matters entirely to the chattering classes.
It's not necessarily the case that the stripping of guns from
ordinary,
law-abiding gun owners caused the explosion in gun crime by leaving
the
population defenceless against armed criminals.
There is almost surely some cause and effect, though.
Another report released last year by Britain's Home Office revealed
that since
the late 1990s, robbery has jumped dramatically, too. It rose by 28
per cent in
2002 alone and, since 1998, there has been an increase in the annual
average of
muggings of more than 100,000. England alone has nearly 400,000
robberies each
year, a rate nearly one-quarter higher per capita than that of the
United
States.
It is entirely likely that some of the increase in the past five years
has
stemmed from an increased confidence among criminals that ordinary
citizens
almost certainly have no guns in their homes.
But it is unlikely the handgun ban accounts for all or even most of
the
increase. France has had a similar upward spike in robberies over the
past five
years without banning guns. France, too, now has a violent crime rate
at or
above the Americans', with the exception of murder.
For some reason, no one in the industrialized world murders one
another like
Americans. However, in most other categories of violent and property
crime, the
rest of us are catching up.
The likely causes of Britain's crime wave (and France's and Germany's
and the
Netherlands' and so on) are illegal immigration, drug wars and
extremely lenient
treatment of convicted criminals. Holland is set to deport 30,000
failed refugee
claimants over the coming months in part in hopes of reducing high
levels of
crime.
However, even if confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens does not
prompt new
heights of violent crime, it does not follow that seizure is a neutral
act.
The best that can be said of it is that it is totally useless. As
such, it is
pointless.
Yet seizure also amounts to a forfeiture of private property by
persons who have
committed no crime (and thus have given the state no legitimate reason
to take
their property). So its pointlessness is a deep violation of
individual liberty.
If the seizure of private guns does not prevent crime -- and from the
British
example it is clear it does not -- then there is no common good that
could
possibly justify seizure.
And if Britain's mandatory hand-in encouraged even a few hundred
robberies and a
handful of murders by emboldening criminals, then the hand-in was a
crime by the
state against law-abiding citizens.
Similarly, the registry forced on Canadian gun owners nearly a decade
ago has
been totally useless. If taking guns away is not enough to prevent gun
crimes,
how could collecting registrations on guns to fill government
databases do any
better?
The problem is criminals with guns, period. Targeting law-abiding
owners,
whether through registration or confiscation, is looking in the wrong
place for
a solution to gun crime.
There have been rumours out of Ottawa for months now that the Liberals
intend to
make Canada's registry less intrusive and expensive, friendlier to
"legitimate
gun owners."
Even if it is made less harsh and simpler to use, so long as it
continues to
focus on lawful owners instead of criminals, it will merely be a
kinder, simpler
sort of useless.
***@thejournal.canwest.com
------------------------------
End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V7 #147
**********************************
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National Association of Assault Research
WWWeb>> http://nwo.naar.be
Will we now have even more draconian measures in a perverse attempt to
wind back the gun crime rate?
PUBLICATION: Edmonton Journal
DATE: 2004.05.14
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Opinion
PAGE: A18
COLUMN: Lorne Gunter
BYLINE: Lorne Gunter
SOURCE: The Edmonton Journal
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
Britain proves gun control is wrong: Gun crime nearly doubled after
law-abiding
Brits surrendered their handguns
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
On March 13, 1996, Thomas Hamilton walked into an elementary school in
Dunblane,
Scotland, with three pistols and shot dead 16 young children and one
of their
teachers. In the wake of this horrific massacre of innocents, a
judicial inquiry
recommended more stringent rules for handgun ownership in Britain, but
cautioned
against an outright ban.
Politicians being politicians, though, they sought to prove they were
acting to
prevent a recurrence of such a shooting (as if anyone can prevent
lunatics from
acting insanely) by passing a law forbidding ordinary civilians from
possessing
handguns. Handgun owners were given until February 1998 to hand in all
their
guns.
In all, about 162,000 handguns and 700 tonnes of ammunition were
surrendered to
police. Jack Straw, currently Britain's foreign secretary, but at the
time the
home secretary, pronounced the hand-in a "tremendous success" and
predicted it
would make England, Scotland and Wales very much safer.
Tuesday, the gun-crime statistics for the first five years of this
experiment in
citizen disarmament were released. And what has been the result? The
incidence
of gun crime in England and Wales has nearly doubled from 13,874 in
1998 to
24,070 in 2003. And the incidence of firearms murder, while thankfully
still
very small, has risen 65 per cent.
Politicians being politicians, they of course have not drawn the
obvious
parallel. When the statistics were released earlier this week, no
official even
mentioned the total handgun ban. (Not even Britain's Olympic sport
shooters are
permitted to own handguns for competition.)
It never even occurred to British politicians and reporters to make a
connection. Banning handguns was an important symbol in the wake of
the Dunblane
shootings. It was the right thing to do at the time. Its intended
consequences,
realized or not, well, they're secondary.
The ban was a "then" solution, the spiral in gun crime is a "now"
problem --
different matters entirely to the chattering classes.
It's not necessarily the case that the stripping of guns from
ordinary,
law-abiding gun owners caused the explosion in gun crime by leaving
the
population defenceless against armed criminals.
There is almost surely some cause and effect, though.
Another report released last year by Britain's Home Office revealed
that since
the late 1990s, robbery has jumped dramatically, too. It rose by 28
per cent in
2002 alone and, since 1998, there has been an increase in the annual
average of
muggings of more than 100,000. England alone has nearly 400,000
robberies each
year, a rate nearly one-quarter higher per capita than that of the
United
States.
It is entirely likely that some of the increase in the past five years
has
stemmed from an increased confidence among criminals that ordinary
citizens
almost certainly have no guns in their homes.
But it is unlikely the handgun ban accounts for all or even most of
the
increase. France has had a similar upward spike in robberies over the
past five
years without banning guns. France, too, now has a violent crime rate
at or
above the Americans', with the exception of murder.
For some reason, no one in the industrialized world murders one
another like
Americans. However, in most other categories of violent and property
crime, the
rest of us are catching up.
The likely causes of Britain's crime wave (and France's and Germany's
and the
Netherlands' and so on) are illegal immigration, drug wars and
extremely lenient
treatment of convicted criminals. Holland is set to deport 30,000
failed refugee
claimants over the coming months in part in hopes of reducing high
levels of
crime.
However, even if confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens does not
prompt new
heights of violent crime, it does not follow that seizure is a neutral
act.
The best that can be said of it is that it is totally useless. As
such, it is
pointless.
Yet seizure also amounts to a forfeiture of private property by
persons who have
committed no crime (and thus have given the state no legitimate reason
to take
their property). So its pointlessness is a deep violation of
individual liberty.
If the seizure of private guns does not prevent crime -- and from the
British
example it is clear it does not -- then there is no common good that
could
possibly justify seizure.
And if Britain's mandatory hand-in encouraged even a few hundred
robberies and a
handful of murders by emboldening criminals, then the hand-in was a
crime by the
state against law-abiding citizens.
Similarly, the registry forced on Canadian gun owners nearly a decade
ago has
been totally useless. If taking guns away is not enough to prevent gun
crimes,
how could collecting registrations on guns to fill government
databases do any
better?
The problem is criminals with guns, period. Targeting law-abiding
owners,
whether through registration or confiscation, is looking in the wrong
place for
a solution to gun crime.
There have been rumours out of Ottawa for months now that the Liberals
intend to
make Canada's registry less intrusive and expensive, friendlier to
"legitimate
gun owners."
Even if it is made less harsh and simpler to use, so long as it
continues to
focus on lawful owners instead of criminals, it will merely be a
kinder, simpler
sort of useless.
***@thejournal.canwest.com
------------------------------
End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V7 #147
**********************************
Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-***@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
Mailing List Commands: mailto:***@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:***@hitchen.org
List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-***@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
FAQ list: http://www.magma.ca/~asd/cfd-faq1.html
and http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Faq/cfd-faq1.html
Web Site: http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/homepage.html
FTP Site: ftp://teapot.usask.ca/pub/cdn-firearms/
CFDigest Archives: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/~ab133/
or put the next command in an e-mail message and
mailto:***@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
get cdn-firearms-digest v04.n192
end
(192 is the digest issue number and 04 is the volume)
To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next five lines
in a message and mailto:***@sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca
unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest
unsubscribe cdn-firearms-alert
unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat
unsubscribe cdn-firearms
end
(To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".)
If you find this service valuable, please consider making
a tax-deductible donation to the freenet we use:
Saskatoon Free-Net Assoc., P.O. Box 1342,
Saskatoon SK S7K 3N9 Phone: (306) 382-7070
Home page: http://www.sfn.saskatoon.sk.ca/
These e-mail digests are free to everyone, and are made
possible by the efforts of countless volunteers.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute this digest
as long as it not altered in any way.
Triad Productions-Fantalla(c)~EZine~ParaNovel
National Association of Assault Research
WWWeb>> http://nwo.naar.be