Anarchy in the U.K.

[SyntaxHeir]

Okay this shooting didn't happen in the U.K. but I couldn't find a clever song title that would more appropriately lend itself to my subject.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0509/shooting.html

Regarding the effectiveness of gun control, I've heard different reports depeding upon the source. So from those people who have first hand experience with gun control laws, what is your take on the effect? Are there in fact fewer gun related crimes/deaths? If so are there an equal or greater number of non-gun violent crimes? [i.e. knives, pipe bombs, fists??]

Does the removal of guns from a society reduce crime or simply cause criminals to commit crime differently. Do guns cause an arms race of sorts between criminals and their victims? If criminals reasonably expect their victim to be unarmed do they need less weaponry?

In countries without legal access to guns how do the hoods hold up a liqour store? With dirty looks and a foul language? I suppose this begs the question, "Are liquor stores are held up in gun-free countries?"

[Kitz E Kat]

That guy that was shot was an "ex-drug" user, and petty criminal.
99.9999% of all shooting's involve people engaged in the drug trade.
Basically they just shoot each other !
The gun's are imported in drug shipment's, and right now there are a few gang's trying to out gun each other.
Even at that , there are very few shooting's, outside of drug dealer's shooting each other, there are virtually no people shot.
An "innocent" person that got shot here would be as rare as hen's teeth!


Shop's, or store's are held up with (usually ) knife's etc, sometime's a gun.
The crime rate is low in comparrison to other country's, but high enough for me ! It could be lower.
I can't say if having no gun's reduce's the crime rate, I doubt it, I would think that a criminal is a criminal with or without a gun.
It would reduce the amount of people that get shot.

I like it the way it is :-)

[SyntaxHeir]

Thanks for you insight Kitz.

So what you're telling me fits largely with what I figured. With fewer guns there are fewer shootings but not necessarily fewer crime victims.

The only gun control argument that's ever held any any water with me is "With fewer guns we would have fewer nutjobs shooting up the post office and the local burger joint." When somebody loses their cool it's entirely too easy to get a gun and mow down a dozen people. The average citizen can't very well go home and in a rage fit a pipe bomb and come back to the scene and blow up the joint. However, somebody can easily walk out to their trunk where they keep their weapon "for protection" and use if for some not protective purpose.

The hardcore criminals will always have guns regardless of the law. However, I am not prepared to tell people they cannot own guns. I am prepared to tell people they're not allowed to shoot people with those guns but we already do that.

So what am I saying? I am willing to risk the occasional nutjob freakout in favor of the freedom to own and legally operate a firearm. In a close call decision I will always lean toward indiviual freedom and responsibility.

[Kitz E Kat]

Did I not hear a story today on the news about a young child shot dead a 22 year old after finding a gun in a press.
That's one for the gun lobby !

[MrsMo]

Something the gun control spokespeople never seem to be able to explain is why in earlier eras when guns were plentyful children were not dropping dead right and left from gunshots. Could it be because their parents taught them how to handle a gun, that is wasn't a toy but a tool that could be used to put dinner on the table or protect them? Now a kid finds a gun and doesn't know what to do with it, doesn't understand the power it has, so there's an accident and little Johnny is hurt or dead. It's not little Johnny's fault, it's not the gun's fault, it's the parent's fault for not teaching him to respect firearms. Now nobody is supposed to own a gun because little Johnny's parents are asses.

Aargh! I'm feeling out of sorts about liberals who would "protect us from ourselves" today. Does it show?

[Radical Ed]

We're back up and, hopefully, none the worse for wear.

is good many time i make 4 here is not make 4 work
tks
is good place 2 b

[MrsMo]

I just found out that anarchy in the U.K. is impossible. They have "ASBO." British Prime MinisterTony Blair (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Tony+Blair) introduced court powers called Anti-Social Behavior Orders (ASBOs) in 1999 as part of a range of measures designed to ban problem behavior such as excessive noise, drunkenness, bad language and graffiti.
How can you have anarchy when you can't even have excessive noise, let alone bad language? All I can think of is a quote from the movie Demolition Man, "Be well, citizen..."
Here's the link to the story on ASBO:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060612/od_nm/britain_behaviour_dc;_ylt=Agjc4889iGjZ0MZRw0gbbWntiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-

[Kitz E Kat]

How about ASBO's Iran style !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5073328.stm

However there is some hope, note the comment's of people passing-by...

[SyntaxHeir]

Can anyone else picture Tony Blair getting put off by those pesky anarchists?

"Oh pish posh! Shove off you little wankers! Your Anti-Social Behavior is downright rude and I'm trying to have my tea! Don't make me call mummy. I'll tell on you. I'll tell on you!"

Where is Johnny when you need him?

[SyntaxHeir]

Wait a minute, I actually just RTFA and here's a nice bit I'm sure will draw the ire of a certain Kat we know:

A woman in Scotland was banned from answering the door in her underwear. One man was "ASBO-ed" for playing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" too loudly, another for feeding pigeons on his property.

[Kitz E Kat]

A woman in Scotland was banned from answering the door in her underwear. One man was "ASBO-ed" for playing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" too loudly, another for feeding pigeons on his property.

Well actually I don't have a problem with ASBO's.
I guess if you live next door to the person feeding the pigeons and spend a lot of time cleaning pigeon shit off your car you could get a bit pissed.

I would shoot the bastard that was playing "Do they know it's fuckin Christmass" without hesitation or remorse :-)

And in the interest of research if anybody has the address of the lady in the underwear I will drop over and try figure out what the problem is :-)

[MrsMo]

...

And in the interest of research if anybody has the address of the lady in the underwear I will drop over and try figure out what the problem is :-)The problem is that she's 200 lbs with "racing" boobs (those are boobs that are looong and lowwww) and a hairy chest. That's why the neighbors turned her in. If it had been some 18 year old cute thing with pert 'whatevers', no one would have said a word.

[SyntaxHeir]

Oh someone would have said something. Words would be passed, I assure you.