[geeks] Re: Gun Control

[Mike Meredith]

On Sun, 7 Dec 2003 18:25:47 -0500, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> Relative to the US, yes.  Frankly, the UK has never really HAD a
> violent crime problem to speak of.

Really? According to 2001 Interpol statistics, the UK(England&Wales) had
182.69 robberies with violence per 100,000; the USA figure was 148.50.
The murder rate was 1.63 (UKE&W) and 5.61 (USA). Looks like the UK is
pretty much as violent as the US, except that we're far less likely to
get killed.

I've given figures for England & Wales, as figures for Northern Ireland
and Scotland are given seperately and I'm too lazy to combine them.
Interestingly the murder rate in NI for 1996 was 6.41 ... so the US has
a slightly lower murder rate than a society in which there's a very
active terrorist campaign.

> 
> > for example in 1999, gun deaths were allegedly
> > slightly more than a 1/40 of the level in the US. "Armed" robbery
> > figures also include things like wooden "guns" being used to hold up
> > banks.
> 
> I understand, though, that violent crime in the UK has increased by
> several times over the past ten years or so, largely due to the drug
> gangs reaching the UK ins strength, and that there as here, most

My understanding is that violent crime has fallen by 24% since 1997. I
suspect you mean violent crime with guns which I can't find anything
reputable for quickly. I suspect that gun crime could increase by
several times without showing up in the overall figures simply because
the initial levels were so low.

There's another theory relating to how guns are creeping into UK
criminal hands. At roughly the right time, the arms dealers to the
IRA/"Loyalist" thugs suddenly had their markets dry up; they pushed
these onto UK criminals, and a few started using them.

> housebreakers would much rather burgle an empty house than an occupied
> one (and generally try to avoid confronting anyone who may be armed).
> Correct?

I believe burglers generally avoid confronting anyone whether armed or
not. Obviously avoiding armed householders is an added incentive.