|
In raw numbers, yes. In certain percentages ( notably rape ) yes. But the overall rate of violent crime passed that in the US about two years ago, and the UK's overall rate for assaults ( all types ) burgalary ( all types ) and home-invasions passed the US rates about six months after that, if I'm not mistaken. It also hasn't stopped the illegal market in guns; my boss is from Manchester by way of Oldham, and he's repeatedly told me that it is easier to procure a firearm ( even a machinegun ) illegally in the UK than legally in the US. Cheaper, too.
As for having a shotgun and not being disarmed; in my State it is illegal for me to carry a long-gun openly inside any city limit, within 1,000 feet of any school or other Gov't building, or in any manner which an asshat cop decides is "brandishing." Therefore, absent a sidearm, I -am- disarmed.
Lastly, this debate is not fundamentally a practical one; it i a debate of principal. Anti-Rights activists and gun-banners believe that I ( and everyone else ) lack the intelligence, morality, cognence, or common sense to govern and protect ourselves. I and those like me believe that the vast, vast majority of people are more than capable of taking care of themselves. Anti-Rights activists believe that they should be in control of Situation X ( guns, drugs, free speech, etc ) because only -they- are smart/competant/wise enough to handle it. I believe that this naked lust for power proves them totally unworthy of my trust, my money, or my obediance. I don't go in for grovelling to Massa and asking permission to live like a free human being.
|